


The Merman and the King

by AngelLuckovich



Category: TsukiPro the Animation
Genre: AU, Crossover, Little Mermaid AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-04-07 14:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 80,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14083461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelLuckovich/pseuds/AngelLuckovich
Summary: Under the sea there is a mysterious empire that human kind has tried to reach for years, but no one has ever succeed. The king of the merpeople has always protected them with a barrier that does not allow humans or merpeople to go throug, but the ocean king did not know that his younger son knows about ways on how to reach the surface.





	1. Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I'm not sure since when I wanted to write this idea, but I've felt insecure about it because certain things have to be different than from the the anime. I hope it does not bother people.
> 
> First, even if Dai is older than Ryota over here he is going to be younger to keep it loyal to the original Little Mermaid story, that's one of the things I wanted to keep the most... because little brother Dai is just too cute.   
> Also, the character that is going to be seen as the father here, it would be the president of the Tsukino Talent Production Agency.  
> Then, some characters may see too OOC at times, but it's because of the story development.   
> Flounder role will be a bit different or well the way to represent this role will be different ...
> 
> Well, those are the things I can remember as of right now, bad thing of posting a fic and being tired I can't remember eveything I wanted to say.

**Moonlight**

There is an old legend, one that says that under the sea there is a beautiful kingdom that has been blessed by the moon and it is ruled by the merpeople. Through several years, humankind has tried to find the hidden realm, and through all that time a lot of ships have wrecked in the middle of the ocean. Nonetheless, there is a myth that says that once a person was able to find the queen of this mythical empire. The legend says that the queen had an inexplicable beauty. She had long and silver hair and her eyes were as bright as the moonlight, she was like a vivid image of a deity. Unfortunately, this person, who was the king of a poor and devastated land, was so desperate to bring fortune to his people that he killed the queen. By killing the queen and getting her beautiful hair, skin, and scales, he obtained the richness, fame, and all the goods he needed for his kingdom. After that, the tale, that was told by many sailors, said that the ocean’s ruler fell into such a grim that he made unnavigable the part of the ocean where his domain is located.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Years have passed since the Tsukino Empire suffered the lost of the queen; the only memory left of her was the beautiful moonlight that shines over the palace once every month. Therefore, every full moon all the people from the kingdom gather together to see the magical splendor and to feel the queen’s love one more time. Besides, only on this day, the king will show up in front of all the people with his seven sons, which makes the celebration even more special.

Today, on this full moon, there is one more outstanding occasion to celebrate and be happy about. The youngest of the sons has come to reach adulthood, his eighteen birthday is also being celebrated. Consequently, today after a long time, music will be heard through all the kingdom to commemorate the day and have a more festive environment.

“Have you seen him?” the blond merman asks one more time, it hasn’t been even five minutes since the last time that he asked the question.

“Tsubasa, we are at the same place, looking at the same spot, if you haven’t seen him, how come I could be able to see him?” the purple haired merman replies.

“I cannot believe he has decided to go to swim ‘as far as possible’ in a day like today!”

“He is not here yet?!” one of the brothers asks alarmed as well, the green eyes looking everywhere to see if there is a sign of their youngest brother.

“You have to be kidding me, why cannot he understand the importance of this act?” Ryota wonders aloud unable to hide his disappointment.

“There, there, I am sure our little Dai will not disappoint us, he will be here on time.”

“Yeah, right, ‘little’…” Ryota mumbles and rolls his eyes, the youngest brother could be anything, but little.

“Mamoru is right, Dai will get on time and father will be satisfy with our performance,” Shu intervenes as well trying to calm down all his brothers.

However, even if all of them were finally getting some kind of calm; once that their father’s loyal assistant comes to them to ask them to get ready; they know that maybe they should have looked after Dai more carefully that day. Haizuki examines the view, realizing that there are only six brothers and that the youngest one is missing. Immediately, his face shows complete panic; in a couple of minutes the light of the full moon will shine in the middle of the scenery. Scenery where Dai is supposed to be to show that he has become an adult.

“Where?” Haizuki asks to all the mermen, but all of them shrug, “Shiki, Tsubasa, you are the closer ones to him, where?”

Both brothers look at each other, they have always been aware of the place where Dai loves to go every full moon. Nevertheless, they have promised him that they will keep the secret but taking into account the situation in which they are right now, it might not be the best.

“I’ll go for him!” Tsubasa expresses and turns around swimming as fast as possible.

“Tsubasa! Wait!” Shiki screams and goes after him.

“You two come back now! Ah, we need a blue moon right now for a miracle! We only have ten minutes!”

“Haizuki, let’s trust Tsubasa and Shiki, they do care for Dai a lot and will do their best,” Shu tries to calm the poor assistant who is paler than the sea foam.

For now, they will have to delay a little the plans, hoping that the three mermen can get on time for the presentation.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

In the meantime, at some point in the huge ocean, a young merman was swimming towards the surface. He is completely knowledgeable that that act is forbidden by the King’s ocean. Nonetheless, he has learnt than during the full moon days, his father breaks the barriers that protects them from the human kind. Therefore, he has seen that those are the only days in which he can see at the moon without any difficulty. No whirlpools, no waves, nothing gets in his way to look at the beautiful moon. Swimming as fast as he can, he reaches the best part to be able to see and admire the moon on the surface. He let his body float with the water’s flow and a small smile is visible on his face.

“We did it Lupus, today she is beautiful, don’t you think?” Dai asks to the dolphin that has always been with him.

The animal jumps from one side to the other, showing that he agrees with what he has said and copies the merman action by just floating.

“I hate that dad only allows us to look at mom on these kind of days,” the boy expresses again and sighs.

It has been sixteen years since that tragic day.

At that time, Dai was practically a baby, so his memories about his mom are very few and he knows that most of them have vanished with the time. From that day, he can only remember that they were swimming together. He was laughing, he was always happy with his mon. However, all of a sudden, his mom pushed him back into the ocean, he did not understand why, but then he knew it. His mother saved him from the humans, after that he was never able to see her again. Dai feels a knot in his throat, somehow; he has always felt guilty. He has always thought that it was his fault that their mother has been captured and killed. However, Tsubasa and Shiki have always been the ones telling him that it was not like that.

“Mother loved you more than anything, that’s why she protected you and keeps protecting you,” Dai mutters the phrase that Tsubasa always says to make him feel better.

“She will be happy to see you becoming a man,” he finishes with what Shiki tells him every day in which he is feeling down.

He looks at the moon, intensively as if he has to remember something and then it hits him. Today is his birthday, today is his presentation to the royal court and the merpeople. How could he have forgotten something so important? He hits his forehead and submerges back into the water; Lupus following as soon as the little dolphin notices the action.

Dai is swimming desperately, just how could he have missed the date? Well, being honest, his brothers could have helped him a little. Maybe one of them telling him “happy birthday” could have been enough for him to remember. He shakes off those ideas, it’s too late to regret and he can only try to reach the palace on time.

“Dai!!!!” he listens to Tsubasa calling out for him, so he still does have some time.

“I’m here,” he says and passes Tsubasa over.

“Hey!”

“That’s why I knew it wasn’t necessary to come for him!” Shiki complains once he sees that Dai is swimming in front of them and with such a fast speed that they will not be able to seize him.

Dai has always been the faster of all of them, maybe he has been always too scared of singing, dancing and that kind of things. However, Dai has always been the happiest when it comes to swimming.

“Dai, wait for us!” Tsubasa yells at him, but it is like talking to the seaweed.

“Just move your flippers faster!” Shiki restores and tries to move with the same speed as Dai, “Next time, we will trust him and we will not come to get him, understood?”

“Well, it’s always good to verify that everything will go smoothly… Although I don’t think I can perform very well after this tiny race.”

Shiki nods, even for him would be difficult to get to the palace and sing as if nothing has happened. Nonetheless, if they want to protect their little brother’ secret they have to try their best.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Back in the palace, Haizuki keeps delaying the presentation, it even feels as if the beloved queen is helping them. The assistant is quite sure that the moon has never moved so slow during the full moon, but today it has been a nice and helpful change. Haizuki has gone and changed parts of the event order, hoping that having two acts before Dai’s presentation would buy them enough time until the princes can come back. Suddenly, Mamoru who has been keeping an eye at the entrance widely smile, he can see that Dai is coming and if Dai is coming, it means that Shiki and Tsubasa are coming back as well. At least that is what he hopes.

“Dai!” the brunette merman says and the other four mermen get closer.

“They are here!” Eichi happily exclaims.

“Now all of you, move quickly to the stage! Your father will be really angry if we keep delaying this!”

Haizuki expresses without the need of repeating the instruction. Swimming quickly and getting into their places, as soon as the previous performers left the stage, the seven brothers start to sing and dance together. Then, just as it has been planned and right in cue, the moonlight gets to shine right over Dai once that he has finished his solo part. Unable to keep himself focus, Dai stops for a moment and looks at the direction where the beautiful moon is. The light is brighter than ever, unfortunately it suddenly disappears, something gets to completely block it, the music stops and merpeople start whispering.

It is without a doubt a human ship.

The king looks at Hazuki, who immediately proceeds to announce that the ceremony is over and advise everyone to move to their homes, with no exception. Everyone leaves the place and the King of the ocean seems ready to go after the humans who have dared to cross his ocean.

“Father…” Dai whispers, he does not understand why the sudden change.

“Dai, let him go,” Tsubasa tells him grabbing his wrist and stopping him from going after their father.

“Why?”

“The ship could be from the same people who killed our mother,” Shiki says with no hesitation, and all the other brothers look down.

Why did they have to show up today?

They know their father has been waiting for a moment like this. One simple opportunity in which he can revenge his dear queen. Nevertheless, the youngest prince seems to be confused by that statement, by that reason to stop the ceremony. Why do they need to proceed in the same way? Wouldn’t it be better to act in a different way? Why do they need to have a revenge? He remembered he saw his mother during her last moments. The young merman saw his mother’s face covered in blood and still trying to smile for him who silently saw everything under the water. Nevertheless, even with all those memories… he does not want to have a revenge. Thinking about all of this, Dai decides to go after his dad, there should be a better way to solve this.

At least that’s what he wants to believe. Leaving his brothers way behind of him, he quickly reaches his father, calling out for him. The king is obviously surprised to see that one of his sons has disobeyed the instruction and that has followed him.

“Dai, what are you doing here?”

“Please, father… I am sure this is not what mother would want,” he speaks the truth, he does not even think about the words, they just simply come out of his mouth.

The king of the ocean looks at his son; his heart momentarily hurt by thinking about the memory of his beloved queen. Is Dai being right? Is this not what the queen wants? The old man looks back at the surface, he can see those weird lights the humans use to entertained themselves adorning the sky. Apparently, they are also celebrating. The King’s anger slowly going down, his mind has not changed at all. Nevertheless, he knows he cannot do this during his son’s birthday. He sighs and looks back at Dai.

“If they dare to cross my ocean tomorrow, I will act the way I want,” the king says, “and since this is your will, my son, I will take this as your birthday wish.”

“I gladly accept it.”

The boy replies and shows a small smile to his father. The tender moment being broken once that all the other six princes arrive to the same place. Shiki and Tsubasa get there first, of course they are the ones who are always more worried about how straightforward Dai can be with their father. Closed to them, Shu, Eichi and Mamoru. In the case of Ryota, it was more than clear that he has only tagged along with the whole crew, and that maybe he has come out of curiosity, but there is no sign of him being worried.

“Well, look at all my disobedient children, coming here even if the order was to go home,” the king expresses, but the evident smile on his lips gives all his sons the tranquility they need, “My sons, your little brother’s birthday wish has been granted and thus I will not attack today the humans’ ship.”

The brothers look amazed at Dai. Every time one of them has celebrated their eighteen birthday they have asked for something luxury or something more… personal.

“But the ceremony was not complete,” Ryota mentions with a confused expression and maybe trying to get Dai a second opportunity for a better wish.

“That’s right, doesn’t he have to ask for his birthday wish in front of the whole community?” Eichi questions looking at his father.

“That is the proper manner to proceed, but today I am making an exception.”

“I do not think it’s necessary to keep wondering about this decision, father and Dai are more than glad with the agreement and that’s all that should matter,” Shu concludes and so the brothers have to agree.

Nonetheless, Shiki and Tsubasa seem to know what exactly Dai might be thinking with this. Therefore, when all of them are swimming back to the palace, the two mermen stay behind and push the youngest brother back with them.

“Dai, be honest, what are you planning?” Shiki does not even hesitate with his question.

“We know about that creepy place of yours in which you hide all the human stuff you find, but please, don’t tell us that you are planning to go after that ship.”

If the youngest merman has to be honest, he has not even thought about it. However, the idea is now more than tempting, he has to go and see that ship by himself.

“No, I was not thinking about that, I just didn’t want father to make something stupid,” the merman replies and tries to get away from his brothers.

“Dai, promise us that you are not going after that ship tonight,” Shiki sternly requests and looks Dai into his eyes for a long time.

“I won’t, plus father must be planning to place the barrier back at any time, I wouldn’t be able to swim through it.”

“I really wish father will leave that thing all the time so we wouldn’t have to worry about where you are,” Tsubasa mentions and then he sighs, “I mean it was cool when you just wanted to become faster and be the one who could reach the farthest distance, but now it has become crazy!!!”

Dai simply rolls his eyes, true, Shiki and Tsubasa are always covering up for him. Nevertheless, he feels that Tsubasa is overreacting to the issue, his human objects collection is not that big and he does not always go to the surface. Of course, he does not do it that frequently so his brothers do not get to know that he has a shortcut to get to the surface at any time.

Once that they are back in the castle, Dai goes with his brother to the room that all of them share. Slowly, all of them go to bed, too tired from that day to even stay a bit longer awake. When Dai makes sure that none of them will suddenly wake up, he leaves his bed. Sneaking out of the castle, he goes to get Lupus and start swimming towards the direction that he saw the ship going.

Truth to be told he knows that is more than impossible that the ship can be closed by this moment, but he is really curious to see them. The humans. Most of his brothers believe that he is scared of humans, that he does not want to know anything about them for what he saw years ago. Nonetheless, he grew up being the totally opposite, this is only known by Shiki and Tsubasa. Furthermore, he actually has developed a huge curiosity to learn more about humans, about their habits and how they can move with those things on the surface. However, even feeling so curious about them, the only time that he has been able to see one… was the moment when his mother was killed.

He shakes off that thought, just as merpeople are not all the same, humans won’t all be the same. Right? He feels as his heart start to beat even faster, he knows he is swimming pretty rapidly, but he has never felt his heart beating like this. For an instant, Lupus looks at him with a worried expression, and so when he notices, he tries to smile at the little dolphin. He wants to do this, he wants to have the chance to look to a human as closed as possible. He wants to know that his theory is right and not all humans are evil. Just when he has started to think about going back, he can finally see the humans’ ship. A huge thing made up of something he does not know. Cautiously, he starts swimming to where the ship is, his loyal friend looking terrified by the action he is about to perform.

“It’s ok Lupus, they will not see me, I’ll be alright, ok?” Dai tells him before starting to climb the ship.

At moments like this, he is thankful that his arms have become stronger with all that swimming, it was difficult to trust just his arms to move towards the upper part of the ship. After having overcome half of the path, he stops, he feels tired and his arms are a bit numb from all the effort. However, all that tiredness goes away once he listens to the music being played at the upper part of that ship. Taking a huge breath and stretching his arms, he continues to climb the ship. Finally, he gets to reach the top, and takes a seat in a place in which he can see all the people that are there. Most of them are moving in a weird way for him, is that the way they dance? Dai questions to himself, but his eyes cannot stop looking at them.

Moving quickly from one side to the other, the blue eyes are suddenly captivated by a young man. Dai feels as his cheeks are getting blush and his heart is starting to beat faster again. The merman tries to calm down so he can keep looking for a bit longer. However, even if he wants to observe more stuff, his eyes are stuck on that person. The young human has long pink haired, but what hypnotizes Dai the most, it’s the beautiful smile that the man gives to anyone who speaks to him. Even being so far from that person, Dai unconsciously starts smiling, unable to hide his contentment.

Nevertheless, his happiness could not last any longer, all of a sudden; a small boy with dark haired and blue eyes is looking at him. Dai is terrified by the fact that a human has seen him. However, his terror vanishes quickly, that human does not seem ready to attack him nor he has said a word to the other people. The merman feels as he is able to normalize his heart beat again. Although, he does not know what to say or do with the little boy that keeps looking at him… and mainly that keeps being in the middle making him impossible to keep looking at the young man.

“Issei!” at that the child seems to react, he stands up and moves towards another boy that look just like him, “what were you doing there? That’s a dangerous point!” the other child scolds him.

Then, the boy, who was called Issei, points out to the place where he is hiding and Dai can only pray that the other boy does not come there. Thankfully, it does not happen, someone else has started speaking and has caught everyone’s attention.

“We are here tonight to honor our dear King, he loved the ocean and all the mysteries inside of it, it’s a shame that he could not live to come to it one last time,” the dark-haired man expresses.

So, they can also lose people, Dai thinks as he listens to the words.

“However, we are also here to celebrate that our dear prince, Rikka Sera, will become our king,” the man proceeds and points out to the young man that Dai felt attracted to.

Rikka stands up and makes a small bow to all the people who are clapping to him. If Dai could tell how the man is feeling, he would say that Rikka seems totally embarrassed by the way the other man introduced him. However, that is his deduction. 

“Thank you, Hajime, as you know, losing my father has been something completely unexpected, but I hope that he can keep guiding us and I hope to become the king he wanted me to be.”

Everyone applauses even louder this time. Dai looks fascinated at that, especially when he notices that two other men are bringing something that is being covered.

“Tonight, the entire nation is celebrating our new king and that’s why we want to give you this,” Hajime tells and immediately the two boys uncovered it.

It is a huge sculpture of the young man, Rikka, wielding his sword with his right hand and carrying a big shield with the other. Dai is completely amazed by the gift, but when he looks back at Rikka, he could tell that the man is trying his best to give a happy smile, but it actually sees as a bitter uncomfortable laugh. The young merman does not understand the reason why, but if his brothers ever gave him such a present, he would probably have the same reaction.

Before Rikka could start talking, Dai feels as some water falls down the sky and hits his skin. This is something that he has never seen before, is it possible for the water to fall down like this? Not even in all the previous times he has come to the surface he has lived this. His thoughts are interrupted when he listens to people on the ship walking from one side to the other. They seem to be in a rush and the young boy does not understand why they look so scared of the water. Nevertheless, all of a sudden even himself gets to feel scared of the loud noise coming from the sky follow by a shining light, just what was that? The boy questions to himself and tries to hold himself, but the ship has started to move too hard and he is unable to keep his grasp falling down into the water. Immediately, Lupus swims next to him, the dolphin also seems to be scared of what is going on and tries his best to convince Dai to move far away, but the merman does not listen to him.

“They are in danger,” the man whispers and desperately looks for a way to help them.

However, it is too late, a thunder has already impact the ship and something completely unknown for Dai starts to consumed the ship. He swims and tries to see that everybody can be safe, the merman sees as part of the crew and one of the kids are already safe in a smaller boat. Nevertheless, he sees as Rikka turns around to look for the other little boy, he can listen to him screaming Issei’s name, the child does not reply to the call. Dai is getting more and more frustrated, what can he do? He listens to Rikka calling again the child’s name, but this time he has finally succeeded and has found the boy. Carrying the child, Rikka runs to the boat where they are waiting for them. Carefully, he handles Issei to Hajime and just before he could get in too, the ship starts to sink.

Dai feels an awful emptiness when he sees that Rikka is being swallowed by the ocean, he has to do something! He swims towards the place at which the ship is sinking and between all those wreckages he looks for Rikka. Quickly, once he finds the pink haired man he takes him out of the ocean and as best as he can, he keeps him safe and swim towards the shore. This is the first time in his eighteen years that he has swum carrying someone and he honestly feels exhausted, but he smiles. He smiles at the human that he just has saved. Tenderly, he brushes Rikka’s hair away from his face and unconsciously he starts singing a soft melody to the human. Looking at Rikka and caressing the man’s hair, Dai is too lost in this perfect moment to even notice that he is being watched.

“Dai!”

A voice that startles him calls him out, he can clearly recognize that voice, it’s Shiki.

“You’re singing…” Tsubasa whispers looking completely shocked, “Why are you singing to a human?!”

“Leave him there, we have to go back.”

Shiki’s words do not leave a place for discussion and Dai knows he does not have any right to discuss. He has sung his first love song to a human… just how could he have done that? He takes a look to Rikka once again, the human has started to slowly open his eyes and is able to momentarily look at the light blue eyes. Rikka wants to grab Dai’s hand, but before that can happen, the merman jumps back into the ocean.

Dai is completely confused by his actions, but truth to be told; he knows he feels happy. Even if he has to explain everything to Shiki and Tsubasa, he feels happy.


	2. Not Part of your World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After saving that human, Dai has to go back with his brothers, an uncomfortable talk and the truth he does not want to face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's already Dai's bday in Japan, so HAPPY BDAY DAI-CHAN!!!!!  
> Being honest, I have had only get excited for En's bday this much, and now this year I have been pretty excited for Dai's bday as well, I swear I was waiting for this moment since October last year. I still have to work on some other fics I have almost ready to be posted so wish me luck!

**Not Part of your World**

Luckily for the three brothers, and Lupus, their father has not activated the barrier yet and they have been able to swim back to their home without any problems. Of course, it is more than obvious that there is a huge tension between them. After starting their way back to the palace, the happiness that Dai had felt has slowly faded away; he is now conscious of how bad his action is. Nonetheless, he is unknown if there is a way in which he could have avoided that event, probably not. After all he knows that when a merman, or mermaid, sings the first love song, the song comes out from the deepest and purest feelings from their hearts. Something that no one can control for them. Now, every time he thinks about the young man, Rikka, he cannot avoid having a small smile on his face and feeling his heart beating faster.

He is in loved, the young merman thinks as he keeps swimming after his brothers.

“Dai, let’s go to your place,” Shiki suddenly says and he nods.

Only Shiki and Tsubasa have knowledge of the secret place he has made for himself in which he keeps all the interesting things he can find that once belonged to the surface. Or better to say, stuff that once belong to the human world. The place is not too far away from the palace, but it is pretty well hidden by some seaweed and rocks. Once they get there, Dai is careful when moving some of the seaweed that hides the main entrance, letting Shiki and Tsubasa go in first. Slowly after them, he gets in as well and always being accompanied by Lupus. The younger merman already knows that they are here just to have a long and boring talk about what they saw at the shore. What is even worst, Dai does not have a single idea on how to defend himself, well he does not even know if it is possible to defend himself from this.

“Dai, you know you are our dear little brother, right?” Tsubasa is the one who starts talking, he has always shown so much affection to Dai that sometimes the younger boy gets to feel suffocated.

“Yes, I know,” Dai replies moving some of the silvery stuff that he has found.

For a moment, there is a pause, none of the brothers know what the correct way is to proceed with the conversation. The oldest, of all the seven brothers, sighs, this is the first time that he should be really performing his role as a big brother. However, he is completely lost. Shiki thinks about yesterday, when they were all talking about Dai becoming and adult and now having the possibility of singing his first love song. He really hates that the moment has come so fast and even more the way in which the event happened.

“Dai, I don’t exactly know why you like all of this stuff,” Shiki starts talking, “for a while I tried to understand, but seeing you happy was more than enough, so I stopped trying after a while.”

Dai does not dare to look at the purple haired merman. He feels as his heart starts to ache, he knows what is coming up with this. Slowly, he feels as Tsubasa gets closer to him and surrounds him with one of his arms. Hugging him, trying to comfort him, Tsubasa also knows what Shiki is about to say.

“This time; however, it’s not something that I can just let it happen, this is not something we can let it happen,” he says and looks at Tsubasa.

“Dai, humans and merpeople are only meant to be a tragedy, I do not want my little brother to be in danger, I do not want my little brother to be in love with one of those beasts,” the blond merman expresses, taking Dai’s hands with his own and looking at Dai straight to his eyes.

The youngest does not say a word, he does not know what to say or how to say it. Why if Shiki and Tsubasa are allowed to be together, even as brothers, he will not be able to be with the man that his heart has chosen? Dai asks to himself; he suddenly feels as his heart is breaking down; if the two brothers who have always supported him are not with him this time… Then, does it mean that he is completely alone? Slowly, Dai pushes himself away from Tsubasa, he does not want to be there, not with them.

“Dai, we are telling you this for your own well-being,” Shiki quickly interferes before the youngest can even think about leaving the place.

“But why? Isn’t it true that we can only chose one person? Isn’t it true that our first love song will be unique and only meant to be for that person?” Dai finally let go of the things that were crashing his heart and he suddenly covers his mouth, “Why would I have to let go of the person I love?”

Tsubasa and Shiki sigh, they know that’s true; they know it pretty well since they interchanged their first love songs. Tsubasa goes closer to Dai again, he is not even sure on which words he should use, but he is certain that he does not want his brother to follow this path.

“Dai, would you like to live in the human world? Is that what you want?”

“Tsubasa!!” Shiki immediately reproaches, what is this crazy merman thinking?

“Let him answer the question,” it’s all the reply he gets from the blond merman, “You know that we are not allowed to be part of their world, we cannot go there,” Tsubasa points out his flippers trying to make Dai understand in a different way why his love is not possible.

The youngest thinks for a while about the answer. It is true, his body would not allow him to stay in the surface, or in any possible case, he would not be able to swim anymore. There will be so many different things and he will have to leave so many dear friends behind. Why does he have to go through this? Because, even if he knows all the sacrifices that he would have to do; he is also sure that he cannot forget that man.

“Please, think about that, I will not tell you anymore that this is wrong,” Tsubasa interrupts his thoughts, “however, I do want you to consider every single thing that will have to change.”

With those words, the blond merman carefully goes out of the place leaving Dai and Shiki over there.

“Who would say that he could know which words would be better in this case,” Shiki comments after a moment of silence.

The merman with the purple tail swims around the place a bit more, looking at all the human objects that Dai has collected through the years. Somehow, Shiki is quite sure that they are being unfair. During all these years, Shiki has had a strong hunch that has told him that in one way or another; Dai has been linked to the human world. The youngest boy was the only one who saw the human that killed their mother; and shortly after that he started this collection. Dai has never been afraid of humans, on the contrary he has always shown a weird fascination to them. Shiki remembers as he has to hide more than once all those weird objects from their father’s view. Then, shortly after, Tsubasa also joined him to help him in those little adventures of hiding that stuff from their father. Sometimes, he wonders if Dai was that naïve to not understand that their father would negatively react to that kind of stuff or if he did it on purpose to see how their father could respond. Now that he thinks about it, he does not even know if he did the right thing on letting his little brother work on this huge collection or if he should have stopped it from the beginning.

“Do what Tsubasa told you, ok? Think about all of this and if you need to talk to us… you know we are here for you and we will try to do our best to help you,” Shiki expresses after taking one last look at all the stuff, “We have always tried to help you, Dai.”

“Thank you, brother.”

Shiki leaves the place as well and now Dai is left alone with Lupus. The dolphin looks with sad eyes to his friend, the light blue haired merman knows pretty well that look. Lupus is also fearing that he might leave to be with his true love. Nevertheless, Dai is unsure on how could that be possible? He does not have legs, he cannot be out of the water, he does not know anything about the human’s world. All the things he has in this secret place are things that he does not even know what their usages are. Thinking about that, Dai takes one of all the silver things that has four pointy endings, does human attack with this? Does a human brush his hair with this? Or do they scratch their backs with this thing? Dai sighs, he does not know. Then, he moves around to see the weird curvy thing, now that he takes a look at it, the material is similar to the one of the ship, so is this a smaller ship? No, that wouldn’t make any sense, it’s too small and different, not even a human baby could fit there. Frustrated by the recent events and by the fact that he does not know anything about humans, Dai lies on the ground. Just why did he have to sing his first love song to that human? Why?

“I ask why to myself, but I know I feel happy because I met him…” Dai whispers and Lupus gets closer to him, “There should be a way for me to be with him… right?”

He asks to the dolphin who looks confused at him and Dai sighs. Probably, the best for him would be to forget that human, to forget about Rikka.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Feeling disoriented and dizzy, he tries to focus his sigh. The sunlight that gets through the window is too strong and makes him close his eyes almost immediately. How long has he been unconscious? He wonders as he tried to recall the latest events. He was on the ship, the whole crew was on the ship; then, he remembers and thinks a bit more; and right there, it hits him. They were celebrating on his deceased father’s memory when a storm started and a lighting impacted the ship’s veil. However, how is it possible that he is safe? He does not know how to swim, if he would have been left to his own luck he should be dead by now. The young man forces his mind to remember more, but all is completely black; until the moment that he was on the shore; there was someone with him. Nevertheless, all he can recall is a beautiful voice, someone was singing to him the most gorgeous melody he has ever heard and just as soon as he opened his eyes the person was gone.

“Who?” the man whispers and immediately someone who was in the same room gets closer to him.

“My king, you are finally awake!” his loyal assistance Hajime tells him.

“I am sorry for worrying you,” the man says with a clumsy smile and tries to sit.

“Please, do not say such silly things, I am more than happy to see that you are doing fine now,” the dark-haired man replies and helps him to sit down.

“Thank you, Hajime.”

Rikka replies and waits to see if the man would provide him with any information about what happened that day. Nevertheless, when he sees the man going away and pouring some tea as well as doing some other stuff to serve him, Rikka realizes that the man is avoiding to talk about that day. The king is completely knowledgeable to the fact that Hajime feels certain aversion to the sea. Therefore, taking him to that small journey was a hell for the man to begin with. However, Rikka needs to know what could have possible happened.

“Hajime, where did you find me?” Rikka suddenly asks, he would try to avoid talking about the sea as much as possible.

“In the shore, my lord,” it’s the reply, no more, no less. Just the necessary.

“Was there someone with me?”

The question startles the dark-haired man, he looks back at Rikka confused. Truth to be told, he was more than surprised, and of course overjoyed, to find the king over there. He was one of the few people in the castle that knew that the king has never learnt how to swim and also has always felt reluctant of the sea. Therefore, when Hajime found Rikka safe and sound on the shore, he immediately considered it as a miracle.

“No, there was no one with you at the moment I found you.”

The man replies and gets back closer to Rikka pulling the tray with the tea and a small breakfast. Rikka looks at Hajime, he does not feel in the mood to eat, but he is quite sure that the other man will not allow him to deny the food. Unenthusiastically, Rikka drinks a bit of the tea and takes small bites feeling slowly as his stomach starts to complaint about the recent action.

“Rikka,” Hajime calls him out of the blue and the pink haired man looks surprised at him, the man would only call him by his name when he was really worried about something.

“Yes?”

“I know that that was to honor your father, the late king loved the ocean, but we know that after his crime the ocean never forgave him, and it has not forgiven humankind,” Hajime states and Rikka knows perfectly fine what he is talking about, “Therefore, Rikka, I think we should stay away from the ocean.”

Normally, Rikka would feel overjoy with that statement, he would feel that a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders. Nevertheless, he does not feel alright with this idea. Hesitantly, he nods to Hajime, who smiles at the moment that he sees that Rikka has accepted his proposal. Before the conversation can keep going, someone knocks the door, the king’s assistance immediately rolls his eyes since he has an idea of who can be outside.

“Should I let them in? Do you need to rest some more?” Hajime asks him and Rikka shakes his head.

“It is fine, they can come in.”

The dark-haired man stands up and goes to open the door. Quickly, two identical little boys get inside the room, running towards Rikka’s bed and sitting right next to him, one twin at each side. The king shows them a grateful smile and pats their heads.

“I am really sorry for making you worried,” the king tells them, but at that moment Issei hides behind Rikka.

“He feels responsible for what happened to you, Hajime and I have told him that he is not.” Ichiru, the younger brother quickly explains when Rikka seems confused by the other boy’s action.

“Issei,” the king calls out the little boy’s name and carefully pulls him out of his hidden place, “you are not responsible of anything, I’m more than happy to see that you are alright and I’m also perfectly fine, so there’s no need to worry.”

The child’s tears keep rolling down his face, but when he sees the king’s kind smile, he cleans the tears and gives a tiny smile to the man. Rikka returns the gesture and pats the boy’s head.

“Now that we are all together, why don’t we have cook lunch together?” Rikka proposes.

Even if he was not very fond of the idea of having breakfast, he knows that the twins love to cook with him and that would be a real proof for them to know that he is ok.

“Your majesty,” Hajime says hoping that the king can understand that it is not yet the time to do more than necessary.

Nevertheless, Rikka looks back at him, his eyes already begging for some mercy to enjoy the time with the two boys. The loyal assistance knows that at this point it does not matter what he says, Rikka will spend the rest of his day with the boys. Accepting defeat and organizing the new schedule for that afternoon on his mind, Hajime sighs.

“I’ll request Kouki and Kensuke to provide help if necessary,” the dark-haired man says, “nonetheless, your majesty, in the case that you are feeling better by now, I will request you to take care of certain issues that have been getting postpone.”

“I will do it, you can trust me, Hajime.”

The man nods and leaves the room, only hearing Ichiru’s laughs and Rikka’s occasionally giggles inside the room. Without a doubt the king is always too kind with those two boys.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

 

Dai has spent almost all his day in his secret place, the last thing he wants to do is facing the world again, or well facing his brothers again. All day he has been thinking what the best would be, and he feels an awful emptiness every time that he gets to the same result.

Forgetting about Rikka.

The youngest merman of the royal family sighs, it’s been a long day and he has not slept enough. At this moment the best to do is to go back and simply go to sleep ignoring his brothers and any annoying question they might have. Looking around one last time he sighs, there might come a day in which he would also have to forget about his secret collection, he just hopes that that day does not come too soon. Swimming away from the place, he sees as Lupus, who has left for a couple of hours, is coming his way. The dolphin seems to be in a hurry because as soon as it sees Dai, it starts pushing him to go in the direction it wants him to go.

“Lupus, what’s happening?!”

However, the dolphin does not the minimal action to try and let Dai know what is going on with it. Instead, the dolphin keeps pushing him to swim faster and faster, until they reach a place in which they can see several wreckage ships that have become part of the sea. Dai is very familiar with the place, after all whenever he wants to explore a bit more and see if he can find something new for his collection he comes here. Nevertheless, it has been so long since a human ship has dared to crossed the sea -of course not counting yesterday’s night- that it has been a while since the last time that he was here. When Lupus finally resolves to stop pushing him and decides that is time to show Dai the reason why it brought him here, the merman cannot believe what he sees.

Rikka’ statue, the same one that he saw last night.

Dai swims right next to it and admire it for a while, it looks so real that he would not be surprised if the statue could start speaking all of a sudden. Although, he knows that is not possible. The young merman keeps looking at it, carefully placing his hands around the statue’s face and he smiles. Even if it is ridiculous, this is the closer he would be able to be to Rikka, the only way to have Rikka closed to him. Then, he looks around, there are no merpeople around and maybe he and Lupus are more than enough to take the statue to his secret place. Or at least he hopes so.

“Lupus, help me out, please,” Dai requests to his friend and the dolphin gladly accepts the mission.

Taking some old ropes that were still on those wreckage ships Dai ties a part of the statue and then places the other end of the rope around Lupus.

“I’ll count to three and I’ll push it up so you can start swimming, ok?”

The light blue tailed merman instructs and the dolphin seems to understand the plan, it seems to be something simple and that can perfectly work between the two of them. Nonetheless, it is not that easy; taking the statue to that place has turned out to be a hard work that Dai didn’t expect. Even worst, he feels frustrated knowing that there is no option to request help to Tsubasa and Shiki… not after the talk they all had. The merman shakes off those thoughts from his head, the last thing he needs is to get distracted and getting to be discovered by someone because of the stupid thoughts he is having.

“We are closer now, so just a bit more Lupus, let’s go, one, two, and three,” Dai says probably for the fifth time already.

“Dai!!!” he hears as someone screams his name, it is Tsubasa and he is with Shiki.

The poor young merman feels as he freezes right there, they are going to be so mad at him. Nevertheless, to his own surprise, both brothers get to him and start helping him and Lupus, making easier their work. Fortunately, they get to have the statue safe and sound and just in the main spot in Dai’s place. Of course, after such a job all of them are tired and trying to recover their energies.

“Thank you,” Dai expresses after a while to his brothers.

“Just tell us that this will be the last thing,” Shiki follows after he gets enough strength to speak up.

“Yes, please, the last one for sure,” Tsubasa adds but he does not even get up from the place he is lying.

“It is the last one for sure,” the youngest one replies with a smile on his face, the statue is the only thing he needs to feel closer to Rikka.

“It will be the last!”

“Father.”

The three mermen express in surprised and stand up, Dai immediately places himself in front of the statue hoping that he can protect it for his father.

“My sons, why have you betrayed me? What is this place?”

“Father, this is something inoffensive, this is just a bunch of stuff that Dai likes to have, but…”

Shiki is trying to explain, when his father just raises his hand stopping him and demanding him to remain silence. The ocean’s king looks around the whole place, slowly feeling as the anger starts to increase even more. Suddenly, and with no previous warning, the king starts destroying everything he can reach with his trident’s power. The youngest merman can only look with horror at how all his treasures start to disappear, he cannot stand what he sees and moves towards his father, grabbing his arm and begging him to stop.

“Father, please stop!!” Dai screams, but the king pushes him away making him crash against the ground and hurting his left shoulder.

Tsubasa immediately goes next to his younger brother trying to hold him back from repeating the action of stopping his dad; and so, preventing him of resulting more hurt. As soon as he can, Shiki also moves next to his brothers, helping Tsubasa to hold Dai back since the youngest merman keeps wanting to protect the few stuffs that are left from his collection. The light blue haired merman cannot stop his crying and his yells imploring his father to stop his destruction.

“I will stop until wiping away all the cursed things that once belong to the humans!”

The king says and directs his trident to shoot against to Rikka’ statue. Dai fights to free himself from Shiki and Tsubasa, hurting his shoulder even more, but he does not care, he has to protect the statue. Even thought he tries it with all his strength, he cannot guard his newest treasure. Shiki places himself in front of Dai so he does not look at the moment when the statue crashes into several pieces, but the oldest brother knew that that wouldn’t help Dai at all. On the contrary, he can feel as Dai chokes his cries and trembles at the moment when he listens to the rocks falling down. Tsubasa hugs the youngest brother immediately, trying to somehow comfort him for all the things he has lost.

“You will never, ever bring any other object from the human world,” the king says to Dai, “Shiki, Tsubasa, I want both of you to meet me tomorrow, first thing in the morning!”

“They do not have to pay for my mistakes, father,” the younger dares to speak, his voice trembling and drained from all the screaming.

“They will pay for not informing me this sooner, contrary to Ryota who let me know as soon as he saw the three of you pushing that awful thing.”

Shiki and Tsubasa roll their eyes, of course Ryota would inform their father of anything suspicious. They curse under their breath the fact that they didn’t pay more attention to their surroundings, they could have prevented this. However, at this moment it does not matter, everything is gone. After saying those words, the king leaves his sons alone in the devastated place.

“I’m sorry Dai, I’m so sorry,” Tsubasa tells him first, carefully hugging him so he does not make worst the injure that Dai has now on his shoulder.

“We can help you out to find a new cave or something, it may take a while to recover all the things, but…”

“It does not matter,” Dai interrupts Shiki, “this is what you also wanted, so it’s fine, thank you for those times that you helped me,” the younger says and asks Lupus to help him to move out of the place.

“Dai!” Tsubasa calls him and wants to go after him.

“Let’s leave him alone for a while… I actually want to have a word with Ryota.”

The blond merman rolls his eyes, if Shiki wants to have a word with someone, it’s more likely to be interpreted as Shiki wanting to argue with Ryota. However, if Tsubasa is honest, he also wants to have a small talk with their brother.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Lupus has taken Dai away as far as possible so he could have a break from all that has happened. Nonetheless, the dolphin is pretty much aware that that would not make Dai’s pain disappear. The merman has been looking to a dead point for a long while already, and only occasionally he caresses his injure shoulder.

After his mother was killed, he started that collection. Every time he has swum far away, every time he has explored a new place; there was always something that he would pick up wanting to learn more about the humans. Probably, he has been preparing himself unconsciously knowing that at some point he would fall in love with a human. Who knows?

Now all what he knows is that he does not have anything left and that even his brothers are in troubles because of him. He sighs once again and feels awful when he thinks that it is time to go back to the castle. Dai wishes he could stay away that he could go to the surface and meet Rikka, and even stay with him forever… seeing Rikka for a couple of seconds would make him happy again.

“So, what do we have here? A poor unfortunate soul that has lost everything in just a couple of minutes?”

Dai immediately gets up and looks at the merman who spoke to him. The light blue haired merman does not recognize the new comer and feeling scared he moves back, still supporting himself on Lupus.

“You do not have to be scared of me, Dai,” the merman tells him.

“Who are you?”

The youngest member of the royal family asks to the merman whose hair and tail are completely white. The unknown merman gently smiles and gets closer to Dai.

“I, my sweet boy, am the person who will quench your suffering.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta go to keep working on the other stuff =p, hope you like this episode and thank you so much for all the hits and kudos!


	3. The Pact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willing to do anything to be with the human he fall in love with, Dai accepts to make a pact with the White Wizard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, I'm having a lot of fun writing this because it has made me question myself about a lot of things about the Disney movie and the stuff that has been written in fics representing this AU XD. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter!

**Chapter 3: The Pact**

The merman in front of him is completely unknown to him, which makes him distrust him immediately. Being part of the royal family, he has had the duty of knowing every single merman and mermaid. Therefore, Dai keeps moving back while Lupus keeps being right in front of him ready to protect him from any kind of trick that that white merman may try against him.

“Fear me not my sweetheart, I have come here to help you, didn’t you hear me?”

“Help me?” Dai asks raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, just asks and I give what you want,” the unknown merman says, “I can help you with your father, your brothers, or even better with that charming human you love,” the white-haired merman looks straight at Dai’s eyes at the moment he mentions the last phrase.

“Rikka…”

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Back in the palace, everything looks to be peaceful and calm as usual, until the moment that the four brothers that are there can listen to Shiki screaming Ryota’s name. Just what could have happened for the oldest brother to be so altered and yelling like that?

“Ryota!!!”

“What’s wrong with you? Is there a need to make the whole ocean know my name?” the other merman complains to Shiki once they are face to face.

“Don’t come at me playing it cool, why did you do it?”

“Are you really asking for a reason why? Isn’t it obvious?” Ryota replies without even looking at Shiki, which makes the older even angrier.

“Listen you damn…!!”

“Shiki, please let’s calm down and explain what happened first,” Shu immediately interferes, if those two start an argument it is for sure that the whole ocean will know they are fighting.

“This merman went to our father to reveal Dai’s secret and thanks to him father has destroyed everything that Dai used to treasure!” Shiki keeps yelling, there’s no way he can control his anger at this point.

“Not only that, father was so mad that he even hurt Dai, and now we don’t even know where Dai is,” Tsubasa adds, he is trying his best to keep his composure as well, but he wishes he could just punch his brother in the face.

Shu, Mamoru, and Eichi look completely lost at the other three brothers. Secret? Treasure? Did their father really hurt Dai? All the questions keep going in their minds, just what happened to have such a crisis in this moment? Everything was great yesterday, why is this chaos happening all of a sudden?

“Guys, I think it would be better if we just start from the beginning, don’t you think?” Mamoru who is always the one to admit he is confused or lost asks, maybe in that way all of them can vanish the misunderstanding and try to get to an agreement and a solution.

Nevertheless, Ryota simply shrugs and talks one more time.

“Being honest, you should be the one asking for forgiveness, helping out our ‘little’ brother to have all those human objects there, how could you destroy father’s trust like that?”

Once the word ‘human’ is mentioned, Shu and Eichi look alarmed at Shiki and Tsubasa. The blond already pulling his hair for how desperate he feels because of Ryota’s attitude, and the oldest being stopped by Eichi and Shu from throwing himself against Ryota. Immediately, a whole debate between the brothers start; Shiki and Tsubasa explaining the actions and defending in the best possible way their little brother. On the other hand, Ryota keeps refuting that what they did was wrong and that he actually was the one who has helped the whole kingdom in the best way. Lastly, Shu and Eichi are trying their best to stop those three to tear themselves apart; truth to be told they are sure that even if Ryota is alone he would be totally capable of destroying Shiki and Tsubasa by his own. Furthermore, with all that mess going on, Mamoru keeps trying to follow the argument, and trying to think which side is right about it. Nonetheless, there is something that he feels is important from all this argument and once it hits him he desperately tries to get his brothers attention. Unfortunately, it does not look like something possible; therefore, when Shiki is about to blow a fist against Ryota, Mamoru gets in the middle this time and stops Shiki from completing his action.

“Dai,” Mamoru says looking everywhere for the youngest brother, “Where is Dai?”

“We don’t know, we told you that we don’t know! Aren’t you paying attention?!” Tsubasa yells out.

“This is bad,” Mamoru murmurs and all the brothers look back at him with worried faces.

“Mamoru, why are you so concern about him? I know we have to be, but…” Shu is the one who asks him.

Shu knows that they all have to be feeling like that, but normally their brother would be clueless and a bit clumsy, and he would even get distracted from the argument. Nevertheless, the troubled expression on his face and his eyes even looking alarmed it’s a sign that they all have to be worried.

“The White Wizard,” the brunette merman replied, “Father used to trust him, remember what he promised back then?”

Mamoru does not even finish his explanation when Shiki and Tsubasa are already swimming out of the palace to look out for Dai. Action that is copied by all the brothers, even Ryota. Years ago, the White Wizard used to be the King’s right hand, always by his side and giving him the best recommendations. Thus, after the Queen’s assassination, the king ordered the wizard to look for a way to revenge his dear Queen. Nonetheless, the merman failed on his mission and so the King, feeling that the White Wizard had betrayed him, exiled the merman from the palace. Nevertheless, the merman had sworn that he would come back to revenge and that the whole royal family will feel his anger in a moment of despair. Those words have hunted them for some years, but since the time has passed and nothing has happened all of them have dismissed the thread. 

Until now.

“Shiki, do you think that he can come back now?” Tsubasa asks to the purple haired merman.

“This is the first time that I feel father has completely lost it after all this time,” Shiki replies, “that bastard might take this chance.”

“But why after so long?”

“Because Dai does not remember him and he is the most vulnerable now.”

With that being said, both mermen get even more desperate to find their brother. First place they search at is their brother hideout. He is not there, Tsubasa feels as his heart aches more, are they going to be able to find Dai before it can be too late? They proceed to go to the place where the wreckage zone is, but again his brother is nowhere to be found. They know that among all the brothers, they are the only ones who know more about Dai’s preferences; however, right now they feel completely lost. Swimming faster, both of them want to have some hope to find the youngest before it can be too late.

“Shiki!” Shu screams out, “Nothing yet?”

“No, this is bad, this is really bad,” the merman replies, he does not even stop, he keeps swimming and Shu and Eichi joins them.

“We should inform father, don’t we?” Eichi asks, he is too nervous about the whole situation.

“After what he did to Dai, I don’t think so,” the blond one replies, he has never felt so annoyed with his father before, “Dai will listen to us, not to father.”

Shu and Eichi look at each other, they know they didn’t see what happened, but in normal circumstances the best would be to go their father for help. They do know the ocean is just too big and they are quite sure that they don’t know all the places in there. Not after their father decided to isolate them from the human world as much as possible. Nevertheless, it’s more than obvious that Shiki and Tsubasa will not change their minds; they are capable of looking everywhere and even going through the entire ocean before going to their father.

“Shu, try to look for Ryota and Mamoru, we need to do this together,” Shiki suddenly stops and orders, “Eichi, you go back to the castle, if Dai goes back there force him to stay, but do not allow him to go out of the castle.”

“Understood,” the green-eyed merman replies and starts swimming back to the castle.

“Shiki, if we don’t find Dai by the end of the day, we are going to tell father, alright?” Shu expresses and look at Shiki straight to the eyes.

“Fine.”

“Shiki!” Tsubasa complains, and just with knowing that the oldest has agreed, Shu goes to look for his other two brothers.

“We will not need father, we will find him before.”

At that Tsubasa smiles, he is glad to know that Shiki has not changed his mind. Together, they get back on track, they are sure that Dai has to be at some place where they can find him. Or at least, that’s what they need to believe right now.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Following with uncertainty the white merman, Dai looks around trying to find something that can he recognize. Nevertheless, after moving forward for such a long time he is more than sure that this is a place he has never been in before. All of a sudden, the other merman asks him to go inside a cave; apparently this is the place where this merman lives.

“Are you still afraid of me?”

“I don’t even know your name,” Dai replies and moves in front of Lupus.

“Still, without knowing my name, you have followed me, you must be truly desperate to have the chance to be with your precious human.”

Dai feels as he is being cornered by this merman. It is true, after he was offered the chance of being with Rikka he did not think it anymore and simply followed the other merman.

“You are such a pure and innocent soul my dear, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shun, I’m the ocean’s wizard.”

“Wizard? I thought there were no more wizards in the ocean,” Dai replies furrowing his brow.

“I’m just a huge exception to the king’s rule, with a tiny inconvenience, but that does not mean that I cannot help other people.”

Unknown to Dai, at that moment, Lupus turns around and leaves the place. Then, without taking any importance on the event, the white merman invites the youngest son of the king to take a seat. Consequently, Shun starts rummaging around the different recipients he has, he selects some of them, placing them apart and putting them closed to a huge pot. After having selected all that he needs he takes a seat right in front of Dai.

“Do you love this human, Dai?” the merman asks placing his chin over his hands, a mischievous glitter on his eyes.

The light blue haired merman turns away, blushing a bit and trying to gather enough braveness to reply the question. He can feel as his heart beats faster and his hands are shaking too, he can only nod to provide an answer.

“Are you ready to make any kind of sacrifice to be right next to your human every day?”

Again, Dai nods, he wishes he could be more open with his feelings, he wishes he could scream out how much he loves Rikka. Nevertheless, expressing himself has never been an easy task for him. He listens to Shun giggling, yes, it is pretty logic that someone will laugh about his shyness. Then, the wizard clears his throat and proceed to speak one more time.

“Well, even if you don’t talk that much, I’m delighted by our conversation,” the white-haired merman expresses, “now one more question, did you sing your first love song to this person?”

Unable to articulate a word, Dai simply nods.

“That’s all I need to know,” the wizard adds.

However, Dai is no longer paying attention, he is now remembering again that moment. The day in which he saved him and sang to Rikka that special song. Daydreaming about those few minutes that he shared with Rikka, Dai does not pay attention at the instant when Shun stands up and starts preparing the potion. After a couple of seconds, the younger merman stands up and looks carefully at the preparation that Shun is making. All the ingredients, which look truly disgusting, are mixed into the pot, once that the wizard has worked in the mixture for a certain amount of time, Dai can notice how two colors are being intertwined, light blue and a peculiar kind of pink.

“I just need one more thing to finish the potion, Dai,” Shun suddenly mentions and looks up at Dai.

“What do you need?”

“The payment.”

The smile on Shun’s face makes Dai shiver.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

“It’s almost night, Shiki,” Tsubasa expresses, he cannot believe they haven’t been able to find their brother, he feels useless for being exhausted now.

“Shu and the others must be already back in the castle,” the older replies, he is also too tired and now he does not have any further idea on where else they can find, “maybe Dai is…”

Shiki cannot finish his statement, he is crashed by Lupus and falls hard against the surface. The impact even causing the dolphin to move back a little and getting to feel stunned.

“Shiki!! Wait! Lupus!” Tsubasa yells and before helping Shiki he moves next to the dolphin caressing its head and making sure that the animal is alright, “Lupus, are you ok?”

“I’m also fine, you know?” Shiki ironically expresses and slowly moves next to them.

“Darling, you are quite strong I know you are alright,” Tsubasa replies and keeps paying attention to the dolphin, “Lupus, do you know where Dai is?”

The dolphin seems to nod and it even looks more than happy to show them the way he has swam so they can go and find the youngest brother. Feeling that something must be terrible wrong for the speed in which Lupus starts swimming back, Tsubasa and Shiki follow it without a second thought.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Dai keeps looking at Shun confused, a payment? He does not have anything to pay for the spell. Moreover, he knows that if he goes back to the castle he might not have the chance to come back over here. Probably if he goes back his father will forbid him of moving out of the castle ever again. At the memory of his father he touches his shoulder again, there’s no way he goes back, no way he wants to see his father again.

“I do not own anything, but I will do whatever you want for the potion,” the merman says.

“Finally, you are speaking a bit more, then let me think,” Shun places his index finger over his chin, pretending that he is thinking about what could work for a deal, “Whatever I want, right?”

“Yes! I promise!” Dai eagerly replies, he just wants to be next to Rikka.

The white-haired merman smiles, he would have never thought that it could be so easy.

“Ok, I already know what I want, but let’s review an important rule for the spell.”

“Now you are telling me that there is a rule, is there any other surprise I should know about it?” Dai asks, he thought that the payment will be more than enough, now the fact of following rules feels like he is not going to be out of the castle.

“My, my, don’t be such a spoiled child, of course there are rules,” Shun expresses shaking his head, “The spell has a time limit. Therefore, if by the end of this moon phase you have not confessed your love to this person; you will become my slave quitting to every single royal right you have and doing any kind of work that I request from you.”

“Is that it?” Dai tries to sound confident, but he knows that having a time limit will be difficult.

“That is the condition and the rule, well… there might be some side effects, but whatever… now in regards of the payment,” the merman says and takes out a necklace with a shell charm, “I request your voice as a payment.”

“My voice!! But how am I going to confess?” alarmed, the younger man expresses.

“Believe me sweety, I don’t think there can be a huge difference if you have or do not have your voice,” the merman says rolling his eyes, “Now, since I have to protect my interests, sign this contract, drink the potion and sing!”

Dai hesitates, if this really is the right choice, the payment, the rule, the condition, the consequences… what if he makes a mistake? What if Shun is hiding more stuff from him?

“Do you love that human?”

The question makes his heart beat faster again, he loves Rikka, he wants to be with Rikka. Being completely decided, Dai signs the contract; then with some hesitation he drinks the potion to finally start singing. it’s not the same melody he sang to Rikka, no it’s different. It’s nostalgic, it’s full of fear, of doubts, but slowly his love for the human he met makes the song more romantic and purer. Shun demands him to sing louder every time, and so he does it. As Shun’s grin goes wide, Dai can feel as the pain starts running through his body, the younger boy feels as his tail is being teared apart, as his is no longer able to breathe under water and the sudden lack of air making him feel like drowning. In those last moments, before losing consciousness, Dai hears his brothers calling out for him and perceives as Shiki, Tsubasa and Lupus take him out of that cave.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

The light starts hitting hard against his eyes, and then he can also perceive as someone keeps hitting on his chest. Suddenly, the boy can feel as his chest hurts and he needs to somehow release some pressure from his lungs. Dai starts coughing, letting the water out and being able to breathe.

“How did you know that would work?” Shiki asks to Tsubasa.

“I didn’t, I just wanted him to wake up,” the blond merman replies.

Shiki, Tsubasa and Lupus have gotten to take Dai to the shore. However, they were not able to move him too far away from the ocean; the new human is almost too closed to drown again until he gets to sit. The light blue eyes look curious to his brothers as if he had forgotten what happened, that is until the moment that his eyes focused on his new legs. The boy starts touching them, feeling intrigued about the anatomy and the so different shape they have compared to his old merman tail and flippers. Inspecting his body, the boy suddenly feels interested on trying to stand up. Nevertheless, as soon as he tries it he falls down splashing water against his brothers.

“Dai, are you alright?” Tsubasa asks alarmed.

Even if the boy has felt a tremendous pain once he stood up, he nods with a gentle smile to calm his brother. Then, he tries to speak, but when there is no sound coming out, he remembers, his payment was his voice. He scratches his head, he is not sure on how to confess the deal he has made.

“There’s no need to explain,” Shiki suddenly interrupts his thoughts, “We got there, to that wizard’s cave, when he was negotiating with you, but that bastard had some kind of magical barrier that only disappear once you signed the deal.”

Dai can easily notice the pain on Shiki’s expression; without a doubt Shiki feels he has failed as an older brother. Dai gets closer to him, he knows he has never done something like this, but he hugs Shiki. If he does not have his voice, he needs to find a way he can make his brothers know that he is alright. The older merman cannot avoid the tears and then he reciprocates the hug.

“Why did you accept? We could have… we could have… just… why couldn’t I protect you!?”

“Dai… Shiki…” Tsubasa whispers, and then Dai moves to hug Tsubasa as well.

Tears fall down through their cheeks, after all this time, this is the result of the secret they shared for so long.

“Now, Dai, little brother, if you really love this human,” Tsubasa tries to speak up and stop all the nostalgic feeling, “You have to try to act and be like them, I’m sure this human will fall for you, right Shiki?”

The purple haired merman is still trying to accept what happened. He is still trying to find a way in which they can explain to the other brothers, and probably their father about this event. Nevertheless, he nods and clears his throat.

“Yes, you have to dress like them and walk like them, there! Can you go there and take that thing, it looks like what they wear,” the merman says when he notices some old pieces of fabric that once used to be part of a ship.

Dai nods, when he stands up he feels as legs hurt again, but he does not care about, he tries to ignore the pain and move to that place. Then, Dai takes the piece of fabric and tries to find a way in which he can wear it. He ties it around his waist and looks back at Shiki and Tsubasa.

“I don’t remember male humans wearing it like that, but it can work,” Tsubasa mentions, “Although it has been a long time since I saw a human, so who knows.”

“You saw the human that Dai loves the other day, it’s been barely 2 days since you saw a human…” Shiki adds uncovering Tsubasa’s strategy for not confessing that he thinks that Dai looks weird.

“Well, then they might have change their way of dressing up and…”

Shiki covers Tsubasa’s mouth; he has heard someone is coming that way. If there are humans coming they cannot stay any longer and they will have to leave Dai there.

“Dai!” Shiki calls him and the younger tries to move fast towards him, “Listen up, we will try to cover you as much as we can, I’ll try to negotiate with that wizard or something, please take care of yourself.”

“We will come every night as long as we can swim through the barrier, please come to the shore every single night, ok?”

Dai nods, he has teary eyes again, but when they listen to the humans coming closer, they know they cannot stay longer. Shiki and Tsubasa hug Dai one more time and then the boy hugs Lupus who has been just watching all along. The two mermen, and Lupus submerge under the water and leave Dai alone. The boy looks around and crawls to go away from the ocean. He has discovered that crawling is not as painful as walking and he takes a relief breathe knowing that he will not have to suffer all the time. Then, he listens to a weird noise, he has never heard before and a weird creature getting closer to him. The unknown animal pushes him against the ground and starts licking him, Dai was about to freak out until he realizes that the animal is inoffensive.

“Mico! Bad boy, you do not have to scare people!” the little boy he saw the other day comes to try and take the animal away.

“Ichiru, what happened?” that voice, Dai is sure that that voice belongs to Rikka.

“Mico attacked this person, I’m trying to help,” the boy replies, still trying to push away the huge dog.

“Oh my! Let me help,” the young man can see as Rikka places the other kid down and gets the dog away from him, “Are you alright? I’m really sorry I…”

Rikka looks at Dai straight to his eyes, the beautiful light blue tone captivating him and making him forget what he was going to say. On the other hand, Dai feels as his cheeks are becoming red and his heart is about to come out of his chest.

“My lord, is everything alright?” a new comer says, Dai can remember him from the other say as well.

“Hajime,” Rikka murmurs and then stands up, “Yes, everything is alright, well partly.”

The statement confuses the dark-haired man who gets closer and sees the scene.

“Oh! I… I understand, should we take him to the castle?” Hajime asks, he looks away when he sees that the boy is half naked and the piece of fabric that is covering his lower half is almost falling.

“I think it will be the best, he seems to be lost, is anyone with you?”

Dai shakes his head in a negative reply, and then he looks to the ocean, he cannot longer see anyone. Not even Lupus.

“Were you in a ship-wrecked?”

Again, Dai denies that, but he feels that with this reply he will make things more complicated.

“I see, Hajime, please let’s take him with us,” Rikka expresses, “Come, let’s put you up.”

Rikka tries to help the younger man to stand up but is unable to do it alone. Quickly Hajime helps him with the task and both of them help the boy to walk.

“Ichiru, take care of Issei and Mico on our way back to the castle, ok?” Rikka request to the little child.

“Yes, sir, I will!” then the twin grabs his brother hand and with a huge determination he takes the strap and leads the dog back to the castle.

Dai feels glad, at least he is going to be at the same place than Rikka and maybe in that way he can get an opportunity to express his feelings to the man.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Far away in the middle of the ocean, in a point in which the barrier is never that strong, Shiki, Tsubasa and Lupus look at how Dai moves away being helped by those two people. The aching pain in their hearts will not be easy to ignore, especially now that they have to go back to the castle and try to speak about this with their brothers, or maybe they should keep this as a secret for a bit longer.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing Dai as a cute, pure and innocent soul.... so sorry if he is to OOC or if anyone over here starts being too OOC.  
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Adaptation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiki and Tsubasa are back in the castle and need to provide an explanation to his father, on the other hand Dai starts to learn more about the human world as well as spending some time with Rikka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally coming back with a new chapter, I'm sorry for the long wait, it has been a difficult period.... somehow.... I need this difficult periods to be over, anyways, I hope you like this chapter!

**Chapter 4: Adaptation**

 

Gloomy, that is how Shiki and Tsubasa are going back to the castle. They have not talked a single word since the moment they left Dai on the shore and saw him leaving with those humans. Tsubasa keeps tormenting himself by remembering that moment, was it really the best option to leave their little brother there? He is unable to keep holding his tears and strongly rubs his eyes to stop the action, with no success. Shiki turns around and sighs, he is also having a rough time and all he is thinking is a way in which they can solve this problem as soon as possible; however, he is not having any success. Lupus gets closer to both of them and moves around them as if trying to hug them and show them some kind of support.

“What are we supposed to do?” Tsubasa whispers, and pats Lupus’ head, his voice clearly shows sadness and confusion.

“We cannot tell what really happened to Dai, we are going to say that we did not find him,” Shiki quickly replies, he has been debating about the options that they have and right now this seems to be the best.

“Are you sure?”

“Imagine the drama they can do if they know,” the purple-hair merman replies, plus he does not want any of his brothers to go through this torture, and then continues, “we are going to the castle right now to tell them that we did not find Dai, and then we are going after the white wizard.”

“Why? Are you sure that going to the white wizard is a good option?” the blond asks alarmed.

“I can go alone if you are scared.”

Tsubasa feels as if Shiki is challenging him and just with that the older merman knows that the blond will stay by his side on this plan. Without given him the chance to reply, Shiki starts swimming again to get to the castle.

“Lupus,” he suddenly says and looks back at the dolphin, “I need you to go as many times as possible to the surface, and of course as closed to those humans as you can, but don’t get into dangerous situations, ok?”

The dolphin seems to nod and ready to follow any other instruction, Shiki then also pats Lupus’ head. In this case, they will need all the possible help they can get, and right now it would be just the three of them. When they get to the castle they wave good bye to Lupus and then they go to the shared room they have with all their brothers. All the four brothers immediately reach out to them to see if they have any news about the youngest.

“What happened? Where is Dai?” Shu asks first and the others look expectantly at Shiki and Tsubasa.

“We did not find him,” Shiki speaks first masking all his emotions with his typical poker face and fighting back the tears, “we just found Lupus, but he has not seen Dai either.”

“We do not have an idea of where he could have gone.” Tsubasa adds, the knot on his throat becoming bigger and making easier to deceive his brothers.

“It cannot be possible, he has to be out there… somewhere… he has to!” Ryota exclaims with a desperate voice, “The ocean is not that big, he has to be somewhere out there!!!”

Mamoru holds Ryota back so he does not hit Shiki or Tsubasa because of his desperation. The brothers look at each other, just how are they going to inform this to his father? Especially, knowing that his father must be already angry since Tsubasa and Shiki were not on time for their meeting during that morning. Remembering about that both mermen know they have to go and face whatever punishment or consequence his father wants to give them.

“Shiki…” Shu calls him out trying to see if there is anything he can do for them.

“It is fine, we need to go.”

“But you two were looking for Dai all day and all night, and you just came back, you two have not even slept!” Eichi expresses alarmed.

“It’s fine, remember that Shiki has been up for days just because he wants to write master pieces for us to sing,” Tsubasa replies faking a laugh, “And I’m fine since I’m usually with him during those days.”

The four brothers see as Shiki and Tsubasa leave the common room, all of them stay in silence. How was it possible for things to go so bad, so fast? Just days ago, they were celebrating Dai’s birthday and having a nice time, and now all of it is just a memory.

“We need to keep looking for him,” Ryota says and looks at Mamoru.

“I know, we will do it, but for now we are going to wait for Shiki and Tsubasa to come back, it’s pretty likely that they will have to tell to father what happened and then…”

Mamoru trails off, he is not sure about what will happen after that. Shu and Eichi go closer to them, the four have to support each other and even more Shiki and Tsubasa.

“And then will make a plan all together, that is if Shiki wants to work with all of us,” Eichi adds with a smile on his face.

“And if not?” Ryota wonders out loud.

“We will try to find a way to help,” Shu concludes and pats Ryota’s head.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Being honest if both of them could simply swim away from the castle and sleep somewhere else, they will do it. Knowing that they were not there at the time their father requested, it means that the talk will be even worse. Tsubasa sighs for the fifth time, he really is not ready for this after the night and first hours of the morning they had, but he knows they cannot keep their father waiting. At the entrance of the royal court, they see that Haiduki is waiting for them, his worried expression only makes more evident that they are in troubles.

“What happened to you? Where were you?” Haiduki asks them as soon as he sees them.

“Dai is lost,” Shiki says with no hesitation, “we were looking for him, but none of us have seen him since yesterday’s afternoon.”

“What?!”

“Just like you listened to, my dear precious little brother is lost,” when Tsubasa says that he is unable to hold his tears any longer.

He is not acting, he is not simply crying so that Haiduki can believe them, he is finally letting out his real frustration. Shiki pats Tsubasa’s head trying to comfort him, he has never been good at showing support, even less in this moment that he feels so confused.

“I will go with you two.”

“Haiduki, father does not like…”

“I do not care, Shiki, one of the princes is lost, and I know your word is real, you were looking for him and I’ll risk anything to defend the two of you now.”

Both brothers look at each other and nod. They will really appreciate any kind of help that they can use with their father. Opening the doors, all of them take a deep breath to face the King of the ocean. Evidently, the king is not having a good day and is showing all over his face, Tsubasa feels as his tail gets numb and he does not want to keep swimming. However, Shiki takes his hand and helps him to keep going, the blond weakly smiles, Shiki may be someone who rarely shows any kind of affection, but he knows how to act when things are going bad.

“Shiki, Tsubasa, why were you not here at the right time?” the king immediately asks with such a strong voice that it resonates through all the palace.

“My king,” Haiduki interrupts.

“You should not talk, they are the ones who have to justify themselves!”

“I apologize my king, but the youngest prince, Dai, is lost, our princes Shiki and Tsubasa were looking for him with no result.”

The king silently stares at the three mermen in front of him and then with a trembling voice he proceeds to talk.

“Missing? What do you mean he is missing?”

“Just what you can understand from those words, father,” Shiki with no hesitation speaks out loud, “yesterday, after you destroyed his dreams and hurt him, he left that place and disappeared!!”

It is obvious that Shiki is speaking full of anger, leaving all his emotions out in this moment, but even like that he is actually holding himself of saying more than necessary. Tsubasa, grabs Shiki’s wrist, trying to make him react and stop him of keep going.

“We looked for him, Father, but… with no positive result.”

Tsubasa specifies at last, trying to calm both sides and to focus every one into the main problem again.

“Send the royal guard, every single merman must go to look for my son now!”

“Yes, my king,” Haiduki replies and leaves to give the order to every single merman.

Shiki and Tsubasa stay there, expecting to see if their father would ask them something else. Nevertheless, all they see is as their father sits on his throne again, his hands are shaking and his face is showing the real shock that he is feeling.

“Father?” Tsubasa dares to question the king, waiting for any kind of reaction.

“I… I made a mistake, didn’t I?”

Shiki and Tsubasa cannot believe what they hear and see, the king admitting for the first time that he has made a mistake. Nonetheless, the situation and the fact that they know exactly where Dai is, do not allow them to celebrate the occasion in the way they would have wanted to. On the contrary, Tsubasa is the first one to move next to him and hug him.

“We will find him, father,” the blond expresses, his voice breaking since the lie is already tearing him apart.

“Please, both of you, go to rest, the royal guard will take care of this.”

“Yes, sir.”

Both mermen reply at the same time and once that they are out of the court they feel as they are free to release the tension from their bodies. Tsubasa closes his eyes and let out a loud and long sigh, just what are they supposed to do? He takes a look at Shiki; his poker face is even more marked than in any other day. However, the blond merman knows that at this moment Shiki is just trying to figure out the perfect course of action for them.

“Please, let’s do what we were told and once that we have recovered a bit of energy we can go and visit… that guy,” Tsubasa says hoping that for once Shiki listens to him.

“Yes.”

“Because if we don’t rest we will not… I’m sorry, did you just say yes?”

“Tsubasa, even I am tired from yesterday,” Shiki answers and looks around to make sure that no one is listening to them, “I am still trying to understand what happened, trying to think about a reason of why the White Wizard did this, so yes, I need to rest.”

“I will not discuss this issue anymore, so let’s go,” Tsubasa takes Shiki’s hand and guides him to their room.

Once that they explained what happened at the court to their brothers, they are able to finally go to rest. However, at the beginning it was hard for them to fall sleep. They remember how they would tease Dai every day by recalling him how as a little merboy he would get between Tsubasa and Shiki since he was too scared of sleeping alone, among other anecdotes.

“I miss him,” Tsubasa whispers getting closer to Shiki, “but… I know that… if he gets that human to fall in love with him… he will not come back.”

“He will be happy,” Shiki replies and hugs the blond merman.

Even if he knows that, for Shiki is also hard to accept all the possible outcomes. Slowly, they fall sleep, finding a bit of comfort in each other arms since they share the knowledge of what is truly going on.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

If Dai has to describe his experience so far, he will use two words, wonderful and weird. The walk to the castle was without a doubt painful and exhausting to him, but mainly it was so embarrassing. Being unable to control the movement of his legs and not being strong enough to stand such a long distance made him fall in several occasions. At one point, he was completely mortified and felt that he was not going to be able to look at Rikka at his face anymore. Nevertheless, the pink haired had been the gentlest person that he could have ever imagined. Every time he fell, Rikka was ready offering his hand and a kind smile to help him to stand. Even remembering that now, makes Dai’s heart beat faster than usual. After getting to the castle, the man who everyone calls Hajime, asked him to keep going with him. Being honest, the fact of being separated from Rikka was something that he did not like at all, but he did not have a voice to complain. Besides, he knows that even having his voice, he would not have been able to complain. It would have been too awkward and he knows that he has always followed instructions, even if he disagrees. Therefore, right now he is walking around this castle made by humans, looking at every single detail and supporting himself onto Hajime.

“Kensuke, Kouki?” Hajime calls out those two names and two young men show up.

“Hello Hajime, I notice the king did it again,” the dark blue haired man mentions with a teasing voice, “am I right?”

“Kensuke! We should not judge the king.”

“Well, we should not, but it is true, and I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Kensuke adds pouting for being scolded.

Dai looks curious at the three men and tries to comprehend the meaning of the conversation.

“Fine, at the end, we just have to admit that we have a very kind and merciful king,” Kouki decides to conclude, “plus the twins were the children of the family that used to take care of the queen, so it is only obvious that the king wants to take care of them.”

“That’s true, anyways, we found this young man totally alone at the shore,” Hajime starts to explain, “he is not able to speak, so we do not know his name, either what happened to him.”

“Oh my, that’s so unfortunate!” the boy named Kensuke expresses.

“We will take care of him, do not worry Hajime.”

“Thank you, Kensuke, Kouki,” the dark-haired man replies and helps Dai to sit on a wooden chair that was at the room, “I will go back with the king; otherwise we know that he will spend all his day with the twins and postpone his real work.”

“Sure, see you later Hajime,” Kensuke waves his hand and waits until the dark-haired man is out of the room, “So, how are you feeling?”

The man with green eyes looks at Dai with a huge smile, that smile reminds Dai of Tsubasa. At the thought Dai shows a tiny smile to the young man who then pats his head.

“Good, good, you gotta keep your good mood! So, what should we do first, Kouki?”

The blond man stares at the scene, they definitely need to find some clothes for the man, those tatters are not even covering the young man’s body in an appropriate way. Besides, there is no way that a person can keep walking around the castle like that… but before getting new clothes, the unknown young man will also need a shower. Kouki gets closer to inspect the stranger that the king has just picked up.

“Let’s start with a bubbles bath, he needs to relax, we do not know what happen to him, but he deserves the best, alright?”

“Count me in!” Kensuke replies and excitedly grabs Dai’s hand to make him stand.

Dai feels again the piercing pain going from his toes to his hips, but he decides to ignore it and walk by the rhythm that Kensuke is marking. If he wants to be with Rikka, he has to accept this pain and get use to it; he repeats Rikka’s name in his mind as a way to avoid the aching.

“Kensuke! Be more careful, he seems to be hurt,” Kouki interferes and stops the fast pace that the other man is marking, “Look at his shoulder, plus he seems like limping when he walks, so we better be careful.”

Kensuke looks at the swollen shoulder, and Dai does the same. It has not healed since then. The young man looks nostalgic, the last time he saw his father was that day in which he destroyed all his collection, all his illusions. Dai feels as tears are threatening to come out, and he knows that if he lets them go, he will not be able to easily stop. Suddenly, he feels a warm hand place on his good shoulder and when he looks up he sees Kensuke smiling at him.

“I am so sorry, does it hurt you a lot?”

Dai quickly shakes his head, hoping that the boy understands that he is alright. However, he cannot control the tears that escape from his eyes, the light blue haired man tries to hide his face from the two people that are with him. Nevertheless, Kouki gets closer to Dai and cleans the tears with his hand.

“We are going to help you, our King is the best and he will not leave you alone, and if there is someone who tried to hurt, he will protect you, and we will as well,” the blond man expresses with all certainty, “You are part of this kingdom now, so you can believe in my words.”

At that the last statement, Dai smiles and nods; he is part of _this_ kingdom, he is part of Rikka’s world.

“Now, young man, let’s get you into a nice bubbles bath, that would help you, alright?”

Dai nods again, these two people are as kind as Rikka and that makes him wonder, why does his father hate the humans so much? He is well aware that one human killed his mother, but he knew they could not judge all the humans by one act. As he thinks about that, he hopes that his mother is not disappointed or angry at him; he needs to remember to go out at night to see her and also to see his brothers.

He walks with Kouki and Kensuke to another room, when Dai sees this kind of room he gets curious at the thing that keep that huge amount of water inside. Why do humans keep the water like this when the ocean is out there? He wonders as he keeps walking.

“Ok, we gotta take this off, alright?” Kensuke tells him and pulls out the old fabric that Dai had tied to his waste.

“We are going to give you other clothes,” Kouki specifies at the confused look that Dai gives them, “Now, get inside the bathtub,” the blond tells him as he helps him to go inside the tub.

As soon as Dai gets his body inside the bathtub, he feels relieve by being surrender by water. It has not even been a day, but he already misses the water so much that he can actually feel as his muscles relax. The young man cannot avoid the smile that forms in his lips, he closes his eyes to enjoy even more the sensation of the water. Nevertheless, Dai does not keep them close for too long, he suddenly perceives as something different is in the water. Hurriedly, he opens his eyes and sees bubbles, but there are somehow different from the bubbles that he sees and feels in the ocean.

“Now, now, let me wash your hair,” Kensuke suddenly says and starts rubbing more of those bubbles into his hair.

“I will be right back in a moment, I will go and look for some clothes for him,” Kouki expresses and leaves the room.

“Got you!” Kensuke replies and keeps his action going on.

Why is he doing this? Dai also asks to himself, there is no need to wash or do something to his hair, right? He has been all his life in the ocean, so he should not be dirty, right? At the end, Dai decides to simple shrugs and ignore all his questions, after all these bubbles feel funny and the way that Kensuke massages his sculp feels good. It does not take a lot of time to finish with the bath and to also see that Kouki is back in the room. Both men help him to get dress; Dai looks excited at the black boots, and dark blue pants, and of course to the way that they are put on him. Then, before he gets the upper part on, Kouki applies some kind of ointment, he tells Dai that that would help him to feel better. Nonetheless, the smell is not so nice, but if Kouki is telling him that it will help him, he will believe him. After that, they put on him a white shirt and a black vest; needless to say, the young man was unknown to all these details, reason why he could not stop watching every single movement perform by the other two men.

“Hajime told me while I was getting the clothes that the king wants to have dinner with you,” Kouki expresses and Dai’s eyes look to shine full of happiness, “do you want to dinner with the king?”

The blond man asks with a tender smile on his face, by Dai’s expression he knew that the answer is obvious, but for some reason he wanted to see the boy’s reply. At that, the light blue haired man nods excitedly; suddenly, he stops and blushes. He should not be this obvious but thinking about being with Rikka makes him feel so happy that he can perceive as his heart is about to come out of his chest.

“Good, good, I will personally take you where the king is, do you feel better to walk?”

Walk? Again? Well, being honest he hates the word walking already, it has been so exhausting and painful, but as he has promised to himself, he will do it to be with Rikka. Therefore, Dai nods and pushing himself up with his hands he stands up. Now that he has shoes on, he feels even worse, why do humans wear such uncomfortable things? Do shoes enhance their walking or abilities? Probably, he will discover that soon, but as of right now, he feels that shoes are the worst part of being a human.

“Great, you seem stronger now, do you need to support yourself on me?” Kouki asks him one more time.

“Hey, hey, what about me, I also want to help!” Kensuke jumps in the conversation again, he was too quiet until now.

“Sure, let’s take him with the king now, I’m pretty sure that he will be impressed by how good you look now.”

“Just wait!” Kensuke interrupts and gives some final details to Dai’s hair, “ready, now we can go to the King.”

Dai nods and supports one of his hands over Kensuke’s shoulder as Kouki grabs him by the waist to help him to keep his balance. They walk through a large hall, there are a lot of old paints, some of the people on the paints look kind of similar to Rikka. That makes Dai believe that those are probably Rikka’s antecessors; however, the resemblance it is clearly just in the physical image. Or at least that’s what Dai feels, somehow the young man perceives as if the eyes of those former kings hunt him down the hall and he even feels suffocated by the emotion. When they reach the end of the hall, there is one last paint; the eyes of that last man are even more awful for Dai. He senses as his legs start shaking and not because of the pain he has been experience, but because of fear. At the moment that he was about to try to take a closer look at the man on the paint, Kouki opens the door to another room. Immediately, Dai forgets about his recent emotions and fears, all he can see is that Rikka is there, accompany by Hajime and talking about something.

“My king,” Kouki calls him out.

“Kouki, Kensuke, and our new guest, come in please,” Rikka expresses as soon as he sees them ready.

“Hajime told me to come here with the boy,” the blond man specifies.

“He is all ready to enjoy a good dinner with you!” Kensuke adds patting Dai’s back.

“I hope so, I have asked our chef to cook the most delicious meal for our new member,” the king expresses, the smile on his face making Dai’s day even better.

“I will go with Kouki and Kensuke to verify that everything is ready,” Hajime mentions and start walking outside the room.

Kouki and Kensuke look confused since they are not sure if Dai will be able to stay on his feet alone, but at that the king understands and gets closer to them. Kindly, he puts his arm around Dai’s waste and helps him to support on him.

“Please, go, I will take care of him from now.”

Dai is strongly wishing that the king is not able to feel his heart beat. Nevertheless, he knows that is so strong that he can even hear it all around the room, and for some reason he feels his face extremely hot. Just what is going on with him on this human body? Would it be like that if he were still a merman? He wonders but knowing that the best would be to calm down, he tries to pay attention to his steps and follows Rikka’s pace.

“I have made some request to some of my friends to try and search for any ship-wreckage that has happened during these days and I have also requested a doctor,” the pink haired king starts speaking.

Dai nods, he would love to be able to express how thankful he is, as well as telling him that there was no ship-wreckage… but that is not possible right now.

“You know, one of the twins, Issei, he lost his voice… he used to be able to talk,” Rikka keeps going with the talk, “Were you able to speak too? Did you see something that made you scared?”

Dai nods again, he knows that one part is not true, but how could he explain that he made a pact with a wizard? For now, it would be better if Rikka believes that he has some kind of trauma.

“I see, I am sorry.”

The one who used to be a merman looks curious, why is Rikka sorry?

Carefully, Rikka helps Dai to take a seat on a sofa that is closed to one of the windows, the colors of the afternoon coming through it and making a nice atmosphere for the talk.

“Since I became the king…” he stops for a moment, he is not sure if this person belongs to this kingdom or to a possible enemy kingdom, but after a while, he does not care and keeps talking, “Since the moment I became the king, I have tried to make this a land full of justice, it has been hard, and that’s why it hurts when I know that something bad has happened to someone.”

Dai thinks about the meaning of those words, he is not really sure about what Rikka is saying, but still he nods. Now, that he does not have even the tiniest option to say a single word. Dai regrets of all those days he has spent in complete silence just listening to his father or brothers, thinking that his words were not important. Even a simple ‘I understand’ would be better than just listening, but that is what he can do.

“I apologize, you probably do not want to listen to the dreams and goals of a young king, I do not even have a lot of experience as a king,” the pink haired man giggles, “anyways, please feel welcome and know that I will take good care of you.”

Dai blushes at those words and tries to look away, he does not know how to react to that. Then, he takes a look through the window and sees that the sun is starting to set down, that only means that his brothers will come to see him at any time. Desperately, he stands up and starts thinking on a way to go out, he cannot leave his brothers waiting for him.

“What is it?” Rikka asks and takes his hand.

Dai feels as melting with the simple contact. However, he focuses on the real issue and points to the ocean.

“You want to go there?” Rikka questions and Dai nods, he is not sure if it is a good idea to be so honest with Rikka right now, he does not even know if Rikka would understand his weird request, “I see, it is alright I will ask someone to take you, but please, try to eat something first.”

Dai looks confused, is it really a good idea to go with someone? He lowers his head, if someone goes with him, it is very likely that his brothers will not show up or will get in troubles because of him. The light blue haired man looks up and points at himself repeatedly hoping that Rikka understand what he wants to say.

“Do you want to go alone?” the king asks after Dai has repeated the same action for the umpteenth time.

The young man nods with a tiny smile, for a moment Rikka seems confused and even worried. Then, the man sighs.

“Fine, you can go alone, but after eating.”

Dai gets sad, he really needed to go now. However, he does not want to be rude with Rikka and so he ends up accepting the deal. He can only hope that Tsubasa and Shiki can be patient enough to give him time and that he can get to them at some moment of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know how I'm able to get some angst in a story like The Little Mermaid... especially since my main source is the Disney movie.... I know the original story, but never actually read it.... my bad.... anyways, thank you for reading!


	5. Overflowing Emotions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More and more changes, more and more things to learn, but mainly there are many emotions that Dai needs to face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TODAY IS A PARTY DAY, IT'S AN INTERNATIONAL HOLIDAY!!!!!! UMEHARA YUICHIRO IS OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
> It's the first time I'm happy I didn't post this on the day I wanted to post it XD because now it fits perfectly to have it as a celebration chapter XD  
> Hope you like it!!!!

As if all the torture of walking down to the castle has not been enough for Dai; destiny decides to give him another test, or well another torture, dinner time. He is alone with Rikka and Hajime, both men keep talking about what they need to do in order to find his origin. However, that is not Dai’s real problem, the real big problem is that he does not know how to use all the things he has in front of him. Besides, the fact that the food is all sea-food, animals he has protected all his life have been killed and cooked for him. He feels sick by only looking at it… he will not be able to eat creatures that belong to his kingdom and that he cares about, that is for sure.

“What is it? Don’t you like the food?” Hajime is the one who asks him when he sees Dai’s expression of discomfort.

The blue haired man seems shaken by the sudden question. He does not want to be rude that, but he is too uncomfortable with the food to even think about eat it. Besides, he is too confused about what to use and how to use it; he knows that he has seen these things before, they were part of his treasure. However, at this moment, he wishes he could have research a bit more on how to use them and not only stared at them with curiosity. The worst part is that not even Hajime nor Rikka have eaten, so he has not been able to at least look on how to do it.

“Maybe, he is feeling sick, probably he has not eaten in days,” Rikka suddenly mentions since Dai has not been able to express anything not even through signs.

“That’s a good point, so if he eats the soup it would be more than enough and it may help him to feel better.” Hajime continues.

At the indication, Dai looks confused at the three dishes he has in front of him, the soup? What is a soup? Why can’t it be easy as in the sea? Dai questions and feels more nervous and pressure to do something. Then, Rikka stands up and takes a seat next to him. The king kindly smiles to him and points out at every dish trying to see what Dai really wants to eat.

“So, what about the lobster?” at that Dai immediately shakes his head desperately, no way he would eat that, “Alright, I see you don’t like it, that is totally fine.”

“My king…” Hajime calls out hoping that Rikka stops going around like a babysitter with the stranger, but Rikka does not listen to him and keeps going.

“Then, what about the vegetable soup?”

The young man looks at it, it does not seem to have anything from the sea, so it might be fine to eat it. Dai keeps his eyes on it, it is worth the try so he nods. At that, Rikka shows him the spoon so he can take it to start eating. The light blue haired man looks nervous, he held so many times this of kind of objects, but he didn’t know anything about how to use them. Dai takes a deep breath and clumsily he gets the spoon into the soup, the liquid splashing his shirt and his hand. The young man listens to Rikka as he giggles when observing the action.

“It is fine, it is fine, just do it slowly.” The king instructs him and Dai nods.

The poor young man feels as his dignity is slowly fading away, eating like a human has turned harder than expected. After many tries Dai feels as he has become at least a bit better on this and so he is almost done to finish the soup. Nevertheless, he prays to have something easier to eat next time, or that at least it does not splash as much as the soup did. Once that he is done, he looks at Rikka, hoping that the king can understand him that he only wants to go to the sea now.

“Before going out, you have to eat your dessert first,” the pink haired man expresses with a playful grin on his face.

“Is he going out?” Hajime questions alarmed.

“He wants to go to see the sea for some reason, but he can go only if he eats all his dessert.”

Dai looks surprised at Rikka, that was not part of the initial deal, but the look on the king’s face says it all too clear. He will not be allowed to go out unless he eats that thing called dessert. Therefore, the young man nods and looks at the other tiny dish in front of him. On the plate he can see a small thing that seems to be fluffy. The dessert also has something white all over it, as well as some red things that Dai does not remember to have seen them before. The good thing is that it does not seem that it has some kind of sea related thing on it, specifically that no animals from the sea were harmed to make this dessert.

“It is a strawberry cake, it’s sweet, maybe you will like it,” Rikka says and points to a smaller spoon.

The young man nods and takes the object. Now, he is more careful and so he slowly digs the spoon into the cake; he takes a small bite and eats it. The light blue eyes seem to immediately become bright and sparkle as soon as he tastes the cake. The sweetness of the dessert invading Dai’s mouth little by little and making him want more of that delicious food. Immediately, he repeats the action, but this time taking a bigger piece into the spoon. This is for sure, something that he has never had in the ocean.

“I see you have a sweet tooth, well, I will request our chef to cook more desserts, then,” the king says while he enjoys seeing the happiness on the young man’s face.

“My king…” Hajime calls out again, he has already realized that the king will for sure spoil their new guest.

“This is the first time I see his most sincere smile after we brought him to the castle, if the desserts are the ones capable of doing that, I will ask our chef to do more.”

Dai stops for a moment and touches his face, he gets embarrassed at the time that he realizes that in fact he is smiling more than usual. Not even in the sea he has had a smile like that; again, he feels his face too hot and he is more than sure that his cheeks are red by the moment. The pink haired man smiles at him and cleans Dai’s face since it has gotten dirty with some leftovers of the cake.

“Come on, you have to finish all of it, otherwise, there is no chance to go to the sea.”

Now, even more embarrassed, Dai nods and eats what is left of the cake. When he is done, he looks up at Rikka, again as if he is asking permission to go out. Rikka nods, giving him the permission to leave. The young man gets to stand up with some difficulties, but since he wants to do this alone, and he must do this alone; he tries to walk without showing any sign of weakness. At the moment he reaches the door, he remembers something important; he does not know how to go out of the castle by himself. He has been guided by someone all day long, he feels mortified of knowing that he will need to ask for some help. The light blue haired man looks back, confused at how to express his new concern and only hoping that one of those two men can understand what he needs.

“Hajime, would you help him going out of the castle?” Rikka whispers, “but please, just help him to go out.”

“Don’t you want me to go with him to the shore at least?” Hajime whispers back before standing up.

“For some reason, he is too determined to go alone, so if he is not back in two hours, we will go and look for him,” the king replies and insists to his loyal assistant to go and help Dai.

“Alright, as you say,” the dark-haired man ends up agreeing, “Young man, allow me to help you out.”

Hajime comes next to him, and even thought Dai has tried to show that he is now able to walk by himself; the man allows Dai to support on him for help. Although Dai would have loved to show that he can manage the walking part by himself; he is actually thankful to Hajime. After all, once he is out of the castle, he will need to walk alone. When they reach the castle’s gates, Hajime indicates to Dai the path to follow to get to the shore, as well he tells Dai that if he is not back in two hours, he will go to look for him. The light-blue haired man nods and starts walking, hoping that his brothers can still be there waiting for him.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Under the sea, two mermen are swimming as fast as possible. The reason, none of them realized of the time since their tiredness was too much and they had overslept. Fortunately, they have previously learnt with Dai all the shortcuts on how to get through the barrier faster and without getting hurt.

“Please, Shiki, go slower!” Tsubasa yells, he is still feeling the effects from the previous days and is almost unable to follow Shiki’s pace.

“What if he went back to that human castle because we were not there on time? We have to hurry!”

“Dai would not do that! He will wait for us, he promised he will wait for us!” Tsubasa replies, but it does not matter Shiki does not even slow down a bit.

Unable to get the older merman to listen to him, Tsubasa forces himself to keep the same speed to reach Shiki. Thankfully, they are getting closer to the surface which will allow them to get far away from the barrier and move with more freedom. Once that they are able to see the surface, they also encounter Lupus, the dolphin has been looking after Dai all day long as best as he can from the sea. When the dolphin sees that Shiki and Tsubasa are coming, he gets excited, it means that they will go closer to the shore to see Dai.

“Lupus!” Tsubasa calls him out and hugs him when he is closed to him, “So, has Dai already shown around?”

Of course, that would be Tsubasa’s first question, and when he sees the negative reply from the dolphin, he looks back at Shiki raising one eyebrow as if he is demanding an apology. The purple haired merman rolls his eyes and waves his hand dismissing the whole issue and starting to swim closer to the shore. The blond merman sighs in despair, is it so hard for Shiki to accept his mistake? The answer is of course more than obvious for Tsubasa. Nonetheless, sometimes he really wishes that Shiki could be a bit humbler and accept when he is wrong. Cautiously, they go to a mid-point in which they can be closed to the shore, but also able to keep swimming without difficulties. At first, there is no sign of Dai, so they stay in a spot in which they can see as much as possible of the castle and its surroundings so they can spot Dai easily.

“What if something happened to him?” Tsubasa suddenly says and Shiki looks at him dead serious, “I mean, what if the White Wizard deceived him and he became a merman again while being in the castle?!”

“Tsubasa, please… stop,” Shiki asks, but inside of his mind, a lot of ideas have started to freak him out.

It would not be possible, right? The White Wizard made a deal with Dai and as long as they remember those deals are always accomplished. Therefore, what they have to fear is the consequence in case that Dai cannot obtain his goal. Shiki and Tsubasa think as they keep their look locked into the shore expecting to see their little brother. Just when Tsubasa is about to freak out for real, he can finally see a familiar silhouette, Dai is slowly walking and getting to the beach.

“Dai!” the blond merman whispers excitedly and looks at Shiki with a smile.

“I told you he will be fine,” Shiki says, although he knows that he honestly was also worried for their brother.  

The younger brother hurries his steps towards the sea when he gets to see his brothers. Dai does not even take off his boots, he is desperately too feel the water again and to be closer to his brothers, the boy immediately goes into the water without a second thought. He really wishes he could talk about all the things he has learnt today. He wants to speak about the different flavors he was able to taste and about how happy he is of being able to be with Rikka right now. However, without his voice none of those things are possible to say, that is why he decides to show them a smile and show them that he is happy with the humans.

“Dai, Dai! Are you alright? No one has hurt you? How is your shoulder? Are you really ok?” Tsubasa is the one who asks all those questions and as soon as Dai is closer to him he hugs him.

The light blue haired boy nods to the last question and hopes that Tsubasa understands that he is totally fine. Then, he looks at Shiki, Dai can easily notice that his older brother is still having a hard time, but he tries to mask it as best as possible. The younger brother smiles at Shiki, hoping that he can calm the distress on Shiki’s heart a bit with that action. The purple haired man gives a tiny smile back, it’s not enough to know that the oldest will be eventually fine, but Dai knows that is the best that he can get at this moment.

“So, everything is fine right now?” Shiki asks again and the younger nods.

Then, Dai excitedly points out to the sky, the moon is right up there, looking beautiful and providing a charming light. Dai’s eyes seem to sparkle full of happiness by the view, it is the first time that he sees the moon with his brothers while being in the surface.

“I know, mother looks beautiful tonight,” Tsubasa comments and gently smiles.

Dai nods and wants to keep looking at the moon, this is definitely one of the best views he has had of the moon in years. However, there are important issues to talk; so, Shiki clears up his throat, calling for his two brothers’ attention and trying to keep them focused on the matter.

 “We couldn’t go with the White Wizard today, but we will go tomo…”

Before Shiki finishes the explanation of their future plan, Dai starts splashing water at his brothers and shaking his head. The youngest member of the royal family does not want them to deal with the White Wizard at all. Quickly, Tsubasa is the one who takes Dai’s hands and stops him of keeping the action. When, the water is finally following its normal flow and the youngest brother seems to have calmed down; Tsubasa lets go of Dai’s hands. The blond merman sighs and then lifts up Dai’s face.

“Why don’t you want us to go with the White Wizard?” the blond brother asks.

Dai’s eyes look full of regret, he does not want his brothers to pay for his mistakes, because a part of him is well aware that this is a huge mistake. What if the wizard gets to play a trick to them? What if the Wizard leads them to make a deal with him too? What if something terrible wrong happens to them because of trying to protect him? All those possibilities going around in Dai’s mind without him being able to express himself. The light blue eyes are now full of tears, and he simply shakes his head again, hoping with all his heart that his brothers can understand that he does not want them to go with the White Wizard.

“Dai, you don’t remember who the White Wizard is, right?” Shiki suddenly questions and Tsubasa looks at him terrified of what his lover may reveal now.

The younger looks surprised at Shiki, is there something else to remember about that merman? Does he have to remember the White Wizard?

“Shiki, I don’t think this is the right time to…”

Dai stops Tsubasa, he moves his head asking Shiki to continue. The purple eyes show no hesitation to speak up, and so Shiki takes a deep breath before he starts talking.

“You were practically a baby when mother was murdered, so I understand there are lots of things from those days that you cannot remember quite well,” Shiki starts speaking.

“I really consider that this is not the time…” Tsubasa says through gritted teeth.

Shiki rolls his eyes at Tsubasa’s comments and keeps going.

“After what happened to our mother, father and all of us thought that hiding certain stuff from you was the best way to protect you,” the purple haired merman keeps going and sighs, “Of course, we should have thought things better because the truth always comes out one way or another, plus you started having this interested on human things and…”

Shiki suddenly stops, Lupus has hit him on the back and it seems desperate, trying to show them something, or actually someone. A human is coming, to be more specific, it’s Hajime. Dai looks shocked, has it been already that long? How much time did it take him to get there? The younger boy looks back at his brothers, they must go now before Hajime can get to see them, but he wants to know what Shiki was going to reveal.

“We will come tomorrow, take care,” Shiki quickly says.

“Please, be safe, we love you Dai,” Tsubasa adds and rapidly hugs Dai to then dive into the water following Shiki.

Lupus is the last one to stay there, Dai gets closer to his friend, he is starting to feel tired and he does not feel too much strength in his legs at the moment. The boy kindly smiles to the dolphin and immediately Lupus understands that Dai needs his help. All the time that he was in front of his brothers he was pretending to be alright, but truth to be told he was struggling to keep on his feet. Lupus gets under Dai’s right arm and swim next to him as closer to the shore as possible. Once that they are there, Dai pats Lupus’ head and waves good bye, hoping that he can see him and his brothers tomorrow. Being extremely exhausted, Dai crawls through the sand and lies down for a bit, enjoying the view of the moon on that beautiful night. All the confusion he was feeling slowly being washed away by the moonlight and feeling that his energy has renewed a tiny bit.

“What exactly are you doing here? And why are your clothes all drenched?” Hajime asks him when he has come closed enough to take a full look at him.

Dai simply smiles, this is one weird moment in which he is thankful that he cannot talk; otherwise he would have said all the truth.

“Alright, can you stand up?” the dark-haired man asks him and he nods.

The boy sits up and hoping that he can really have enough strength to stand up he pushes himself up. Once again, even if he has shown to Hajime that he is alright to do this by his own, the man stands right next to him, allowing him to support himself on him. Dai is actually grateful towards Hajime kindness and he lowers his head in embarrassment.

“It is alright to ask for help once in a while, you do not have to pretend to be a hundred percent fine,” the man starts speaking after they have walked for a while, “therefore, if you need help, let us know, if you need to express yourself, do it, we will find the way to know what you need.”

Dai looks confused at Hajime, why is the man telling him these things?

“And mainly,” the man continues, “if you need to cry, do it, it is not good to keep your emotions bottle up all the time.”

At those words, Dai feels as if the locked he has placed on his emotions has been opened. The boy feels as the tears start tracing paths down his cheeks and there is no way to stop them. He missed his brothers, his friends, even his father, but he knows that he wants to be with Rikka… why does he have to choose between two worlds? Dai suddenly falls on his knees, crying and trying hard to clean his tears and stop his sobs.

“It is ok, it’s ok, you need to let it go,” Hajime sits next to the boy and pats his back.

They stay for some moments like that, Dai keeps crying, his body shaking and unable to stop the action, while Hajime keeps being by his side, showing as much comfort and support as he can. Once that is seems that Dai has started to calmed down, Hajime pats his head and stands up again, offering his hand to Dai to help him up.

“Hajime?” a voice calls him, it’s Rikka, “oh my, what happened?” the king says and hurries towards the two men.

“I thought he needed some time to let go of some emotions,” Hajime replies.

On the other hand, Dai tries to hide his face from Rikka, he does not want the pink haired man to see him like this. However, the smaller man gets to him and all of a sudden, he cups Dai’s face with his hands and gently smiles.

“Everything will be fine!” Rikka expresses, “but right now, let’s hurry to the castle, you are all drenched and you may catch a cold if you do not change your clothes!”

The king says and holds Dai’s hand in order to guide him to the castle once again. The young man feels completely flustered, he cannot believe that Rikka is again holding his hand. Dai cannot believe that the man he loves is so kind and caring. The young man feels as he is about to break into tears again, but this time because of his happiness. However, he prefers to hold his tears since he does not want Rikka, not even Hajime, to worry for him anymore during this night. Once they get to the castle, Rikka asks to Kouki and Kensuke to get some night clothes for the light blue haired boy, and he also asks Hajime to prepare a room for the young man. After Dai is already with dry and comfortable clothes to sleep, Hajime takes him to the room that has been prepared for him. Inside the room, Rikka is waiting for him.

“Thank you, Hajime, I will stay with him for a while,” the king says and accompanies Dai towards the bed.

“My king… just try to go to sleep as soon as possible,” Hajime replies and turns around.

Rikka giggles at the petition, Hajime still sees him as a boy who needs his tutor to dictate the things he needs to do. The pink haired brushes off the thought, otherwise he knows he will start telling a lot of old stories to the young boy; and that is not the point at the moment. Rikka helps the light blue haired man to take a seat on the bed and then he sits next to Dai.

“I already told you that a doctor will come to see you tomorrow, right?” at the question Dai nods and keeps his eyes locked at Rikka, unable to control the action, “Good, the doctor will be here at first time in the morning, but after that you can do whatever you want.”

The king tells him, and Dai immediately thinks that the only thing he wants to do is staying with Rikka all day long. However, he nods and looks away, what would Rikka think about him if he goes tracing after him all day long? Nevertheless, then there is also the question on how would he make Rikka fall in love with him if he does not spend time with Rikka? Dai furrows his brow in confusion, just what should he do?

“Are you alright?” the king asks him and Dai gets surprised by the sudden question.

The boy nods and suddenly he feels nervous. Dai has just come to think that he is completely alone with Rikka. His heart starts beating faster again, now his mind is screaming at him, wondering what to do… really what should he do? He feels one more time as his face gets warmer and his hands are shaking.

“Are you sure you are alright?” Rikka asks again, Dai closes his eyes and nods, “You know? You are cute… ok, I may get in troubles with Hajime for this, but… do you want to go tomorrow to the town with me?”

Dai opens his eyes and looks at Rikka, is he asking him to go out? Like a date… he has heard about dates because of Tsubasa. His brother is always complaining that Shiki never takes him out on dates and they only spend time together while Shiki writes music. Leaving all those thoughts apart, Dai hurries himself to nod and accept Rikka’s proposal.

“Then, it’s done, we are going out tomorrow, I will show you the town, so you better get some sleep tonight,” the king says and stands up, “if you need anything, my room is the one next to yours, don’t be shy and go if you need it.”

Rikka says and smiles, before leaving the room he turns around one more time, “good night,” the pink haired man says and leaves.

Dai feels as he is in a dream, Rikka has been with him, Rikka has asked him to go on a date, and he is right next to him… well Rikka’s room is right next to his room. Dai cannot avoid the smile forming on his face, all of this has been a full chain of overwhelming and contradictory feelings. However, he needs to think more about the good feelings to keep motivated. Even if he feels awfully tired, he stands up and with some difficulties he walks to the window, he looks at the sky to see the moon and sighs. He hopes that his mother understands his emotions and can actually help him somehow through this odyssey. Then, he looks at the ocean, he wonders how his father and brothers are, he wishes he could let Shiki and Tsubasa know how things are going for him, but for that, he can wait until tomorrow. Feeling better now, he walks again to the bed and lies down, his eyes closing almost instantaneously and allowing himself to sleep as much as he needs, dreaming about his future date with Rikka.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now... I wanna go out of work and celebrate <3


	6. Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having a different way of thinking on how to help Dai, Shiki and Tsubasa have a little argument that makes them think about the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a miracle that only happens when I'm way too happy and hype... so here it is, a new chapter after just a week, hope you like it!

**Chapter 6: Past**

Complete silence, it is becoming a habit to swim in complete silence for Shiki and Tsubasa. However, they know that the recent events are taking away what is normal for them. Nevertheless, this time Shiki feels uneasy about it and he can tell that Tsubasa wants to kill him just with his look. Before they get even closer to the Royal Castle and they can be heard by any guard or even his brothers, Shiki stops and grabs Tsubasa’s hand; dragging him inside the cave that used to be Dai’s secret place. They have not been there since the day in which everything started, so their mood becomes immediately more awkward and nostalgic as soon as they are in.

“What’s the big purpose of getting in here?” Tsubasa immediately complains.

“To know what’s wrong with you, I can feel your killing aura without even looking at you,” Shiki replies and holds even stronger the blond’s hand.

Tsubasa forces Shiki to let go of his hand and takes a deep breath. Every thing keeps getting more complicated and the blond feels as if Shiki was about to make the whole situation even worse. The blond merman is not sure if he should go ahead and take all the things that are bothering him out. However, before he can even consider it a bit more, he starts going on.

“Why were you going to tell him about the White Wizard!?” Tsubasa yells and pulls his hair, “We promised that we were not going to tell anything about the White Wizard to Dai! Never!”

The purple haired merman allows Tsubasa to let go of some of his frustration. He understands what the blond man is feeling, but he does not how else he can help him.

“We decided as a family that Dai will be unknown to our bond with the White Wizard that he… that he should be free from all suffering and… we were protecting him, all of us, father and us, all his six brothers, we promised it, Shiki!”

“Tsubasa,” Shiki calls him and with no further words, he hugs him, “You think that I don’t remember our promise, you think I don’t remember the past?”

Tsubasa suddenly chokes his cries and corresponds the hug, clinging desperately to Shiki.

“But now, it may be the time to change certain choices, maybe if Dai had known about the White Wizard…” Shiki stops there, there is no way that they can assure that things would have been different.

“Did we make the wrong choice?” Tsubasa asks in the middle of sobs.

“We may have, that’s why we must help Dai now, that’s why he needs to know the truth now.”

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Six young merboys are supposed to be practicing for their next recital; however, playing around and waiting for their mother to come back with their youngest brother is much better than practicing. Nonetheless, the oldest brother is working as their father asked him in a new song for all of them, something that he has to stop doing once that a blond merman crashes against him.

“Opsss... Sorry, Shiki, but Eichi threw the ball too hard and I wanted to catch it,” Tsubasa says at the moment that he sees the anger rising up and Eichi tries to hide somewhere.

“Shiki, this is not something to get angry about, ok? Your brothers are just playing around,” Shu comes and interferes on Tsubasa and Eichi’s favor.

“We are supposed to be rehearsing our music, not playing,” Shiki clarifies to Shu who smiles, again asking him to calm down.

“Well, mother is the one who helps us practicing and she is not back yet,” Mamoru joins the conversation while carrying Ryota.

“It’s not fair, mother only likes to be with Dai,” the little one complains.

Shiki sighs, truth to be told, their mother has taken more time than usual in coming back. During the last days, their mother has been focusing on the little Dai since it seems that his special talent is being fast at swimming. Even though, the king has insisted that that would be a useless talent for any merman. The king has as well claimed that they should give more time to see if there was something else he could do; however, the queen has not listened to the complaint. Therefore, as she has done with everyone of their sons, she is now taking her time to help Dai to develop this ability. However, the absence of their mother due to this purpose is not something easy to explain to his younger brothers, Shiki thinks as he sees the looks on Ryota and Tsubasa. The oldest brother remembers some of the days in which his mother used to be with him, helping him to learn more about music and cheering for him every day until the moment that he got to compose his first song. Of course, back then it was easier since Mamoru and Shu were still babies and would not complaint about the time that his mother used to dedicate to him. After daydreaming about the past, Shiki looks back at the time; definitely is not normal for his mother to take this long.

“Mamoru, please take care of our brothers, I will go to look for mother and Dai,” Shiki suddenly says.

“Are you sure? She may be on her way back with Dai,” Mamoru replies as he tries to hold his yells when Ryota pulls his hair.

“I’ll go with Shiki!!!” Tsubasa jumps in the conversation volunteering to go with the oldest.

“No, you are going to stay here, you get tired too fast and I need to swim fast,” the oldest replies placing his work on the ground, “I’ll be back with them, please try to practice a little bit.”

“Fine,” all the brothers reply and look as the oldest brother leaves.

When going out of the castle limits, Shiki runs into a white-haired merman.

“Shiki, going somewhere?”

“Shun, I am worried for mother and Dai, I’m going to see if they are alright,” the prince replies and tries to keep going.

“I am more than sure that my beloved sister and my cute little nephew are just fine,” Shun replies.

“Still, gonna check on them, if possible keep an eye on my brothers.”

“Sure, see you Shiki!”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

At some place in the ocean, a beautiful mermaid is swimming with her little merboy. The lady swims fast, making the little merboy go after her, cheering for him to surpass her. Dai, who is this little merboy, cannot stop laughing while he swims, chasing after his mother and reaching out for her with his tiny arms. Once that he is closed to his mother, he grabs her mother’s hand and happily smile to then go a bit further, he has reached the goal of the day.

“Great job my cute prince, you did it great!”

“I’m fast!” Dai expresses and hugs his mother.

“Yes, you are, now the prize of the day, we are going to the surface for a little while, alright?” his mother proposes and his eyes go wide open.

“The surface?”

“Yes, you like going there and look at the sky, right?” the little merboy nods excited.

Then, his mother carries him, the child has already swum a lot for the day and it was only fair for him to be carried to his favorite place. The queen knows that doing this is against her husband’s desire, the king has always been to cautious about the surface and the humans. However, she has seen how much Dai loves to go to the surface and look at the sky, the birds, and once in a while, and from very safe distances, a human ship. Unfortunately, that day the sky is not as clear as usual, there are lots of clouds that are covering the sun and a heavy mist is all around the ocean. Even the birds seem to know that is not a proper weather to fly since there are no birds visible around.

Still, even if the landscape does not look as cheerful as usual, Dai seems happy of being there, it is a different way of seeing the human world, and his eyes are captive by the sight. Nevertheless, all of a sudden, the queen feels that something is not right, hidden in the mist, a human ship is too closed to them, this has never happened before. The queen strongly hugs Dai, she is afraid of what can happen if the humans get to see them.

“Dai, my cute little prince, I need you to swim really, really fast.”

“Mommy?” Dai questions her, he has not noticed the ship because of the mist and the fact that his mother is blocking the view of the ship to him.

“You have to swim now!” The queen orders him and let go of him.

Just in that moment, the queen can listen to some yells coming from the human ship, Dai is already under the water, and so she starts swimming in the opposite direction to the prince. Nonetheless, the little merboy thinks that this is just their usual game and that he has to chase after her. Therefore, after a couple of seconds, he starts swimming towards the same direction than his mother; the queen notices this and stops, immediately screaming at Dai to go away. The merboy stops, he does not understand why his mother is doing this. He wants to go closer to his mother, but she keeps swimming away from him. The light blue haired merboy goes after his mother again, screaming out to her to wait for him, this time the queen stops, she has tears on her face and screams one more to her child to go away. Dai is already tired, but he fights with all his strength to get to her. Nonetheless, before he can reach out to her, he sees as a weapon injures his mother, she tries to smile until her last moment for Dai, but then the queen falls.

The child looks in horror as his mother’s face is getting covered by blood. The water around him slowly turning red and he can only hold his tears. Then, Dai tries to swim closer to his mother. The little merboy wants to touch his mother’s face, he wants her to wake up and swim back to the castle with him. Nevertheless, his trembling hands are not able to do it, his mother’s body is pulled out of the water leaving only a trace of blood behind her. He cannot see his mother anymore and stays there without being able to do something.

“Dai!!”

A voice calls out for him, but the merboy is motionless, looking at an empty space, and in complete silence, the water around him is still tainted with blood. Shiki hurries to get to his little brother, the oldest brother does not need any explanation, he saw part of what happened and that’s enough. The purple haired merman hugs Dai as soon as he gets to him, the youngest son of the king starts to cry as soon as he recognizes his oldest brother.

“I’m here Dai, I’m here, I’ll protect you, Dai, it’s ok now, I’m here,” Shiki starts repeating those words to his little brother and knowing that the best is to take Dai out of that place, he starts swimming away to get back to the castle.

Just how is he going to tell to his brothers… to his father that his mother has been killed?!

When they reached the palace, Dai has fallen slept on Shiki’s arms, and the oldest looks at his brothers unknown on how to give the news.

“Shiki?” Mamoru calls him out and tries to take Dai into his arms to help the oldest brother who seems exhausted.

However, Shiki does not allow him to take Dai away from his arms.

“Shiki, please tell us what happened, where is my sister?” Shun that has been looking after the princes asks.

“Mother… she… she has been killed…” Shiki finally let the words out, as he says it, he hugs the youngest even stronger, “the humans killed our mother.”

All the brothers remained silence, and then Shun leaves the room, he will be the one informing the king about the queen’s dead. Tsubasa is the first one to move next to Shiki, he hugs his older brother and caresses Dai’s hair.

“Dai saw it all… I couldn’t get on time… I couldn’t protect mother… I couldn’t protect Dai,” Shiki expresses his voice is trembling.

“It is not your fault, Shiki,” Shun tries to comfort his brother.

“Mother… is she not coming back?” Ryota murmurs while he gets closer to Mamoru.

“She will not… she will not be back,” Eichi replies.

No prince in the room is able to hold his tears. The queen, their beloved mother is never coming back to them.

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

A whole week of mourning has passed, but after this time the king is unable to avoid the need of revenge. During the royal court, with Shun, Haiduki, and his three older children, he expressed his request and course of action to them.

“White Wizard, I commend you to become a human through your magic, go and learn about their weakness, about the way to make them suffer, we will revenge the queen.”

The princes, even thought they have the privilege to be there, they do not have the right to express themselves. The three young mermen can see as their uncle hesitates to obey the command. Nevertheless, Shun also feels the need to revenge his sister.

“I will do so, my king,” the white-haired merman replies.

“You will have three weeks, after that you must come back with your findings so we can win this war against the humans,” the king orders and the wizard nods.

For that day, the royal court is dismissed, the king leaves the room with Haidzuki and then there is just silence in that huge room. Shun knows that after this he has to prepare to go to the human world and accomplish this quest. He feels nostalgic, three weeks out of the ocean, three weeks without his family, and overall three weeks of dark nights without the possibility of looking at the moon.

“Shun… uncle…” Shiki calls him.

“I will go to say good bye to all of you, ok? For now, you should go with Dai, Tsubasa might be already tired of being with him; although we know that he loves taking care of Dai,” Shun says, he does not want to worry the oldest prince.

“Yes, you are right, please, come to say good bye.”

Shiki goes with Mamoru and Shun to the room they all shared. When they get there, the environment is still the same; Eichi is playing with Ryota and Tsubasa is taking care of Dai.

“Has he talked?” Shiki asks to the blond-haired merman.

“Nothing yet, but he did smile a bit when we played with Lupus,” Tsubasa replies, and by the mention of the dolphin’s name, Dai looks up searching for Lupus.

“I see, we will need Lupus to come more frequently then,” the oldest adds, since the day that Dai saw his mother being killed, he has not spoken a word.

“What happened at the royal court?” Eichi asks.

Immediately, the three older brothers stay in silence. However, at that moment, their uncle comes in.

“Just a tiny plan from the king, I’ll be leaving for a while, so please, don’t get yourselves in troubles.”

The White Wizard says as he gets closed to his nephews. Shun starts to say his good byes one by one, but when he gets to Dai, the boy hides behind Shiki and Tsubasa. It has been like that since that day, he only trusts Shiki and Tsubasa and not even the King is able to get closed to his youngest son without making him cry.

“Well, I’ll say good by to you from here little Dai, take care, I know you will be fine soon, I hope to listen to your voice when I come back,” Shun expresses, “then, I guess I’ll see all of you in three weeks.”

“Bye uncle Shun,” all of them say and see as their uncle leaves the palace.

°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

When the three weeks were over, all the princes were excited to welcome back their uncle, but after his meeting with their father, everything changed.

Unknown to the princes, the king exiled the White Wizard, cursing him not to be allowed to use his magic on himself ever again. However, when Shun was leaving the castle, his anger and frustration got the best of him. Full of rage and with a heartbreaking voice he cursed the royal family with the dark magic that he was capable of handling too. Promising that one day he will tear the royal family apart and the pain would be even more extreme that the one they had already suffered.

Even though, the princes were wanting to have a specific reason on why the king had made all these decisions; and why their uncle had cursed them like that, they were not given any reason or justification. On the contrary, their father gathered them one day and simply asked them not to mention the name of their uncle ever again. Even less telling Dai about the existence of said merman. By that time, they have realized that the youngest prince had blocked many memories, and that he had forgotten about many people that belong to the castle. This was something that used to scared his father and brothers, but that all of them were hoping that could be something temporal. Nevertheless, they would use that in their favor to keep Dai unknown of their uncle. Unfortunately, even if they wanted Dai to forget about what he saw, it was more than evident that the nightmares from the day in which his mother was killed in front of him were still chasing him every night.   

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

“After that we made the promise, I remember everything too clear, Tsubasa… that’s why I know we need to do something about Dai, I don’t want him to face the same destiny as Shun if he can’t…”

“If he can’t get the human to fall in love with him,” Tsubasa whispers.

It does not matter how they look at the situation, any outcome is not good. On one hand, if Dai fails he will have to return to the ocean; he will become the White Wizard’ slave and probably their father will not do anything to help him since Dai will be considered a traitor too. However, on the other hand, if Dai accomplishes what he wants, they will never be able to see him again, he will be part of the human’s kingdom, something that their father will not forgive. Either option makes Dai a traitor to the king’s eyes and at the end there will be no option to him to go back to the castle.

“Being honest, we are being selfish,” Shiki murmurs and Tsubasa looks at him, “He loves that human, we should help him to get the human to fall for him.”

“Are you crazy!?” Tsubasa screams his eyes going wide opened.

“Tsubasa, think about it, please… I don’t want to lose him, he is my little brother too and I promised to protect him since that day,” Shiki expresses, “however, I also believe that the concept of protecting him means as well to allow him to love the person he wants.”

Tsubasa stares in silence at Shiki, his words making perfect sense, even if they hurt.

“Although I am saying this, I still want to go and visit our uncle,” the purple haired merman expresses at last.

“I’ll go with you, I also… I also want to help Dai,” Tsubasa replies and gets ready to go back to the castle, “I still remember looking at him in this place every time he got something new, his smile was always so sincere.”

Nostalgic the blond merman says and takes Shiki’s hand.

“I am sorry, I did not want to scream at you… well, maybe I did want, but, please next time tell me from the beginning what you want to do.”

“I will try, but remember that I’m not some kind of schemer, I do everything on the way, that’s why do not ask me about what kind of excuse we can give to our brothers about why we are getting so late to the castle.”

The merman adds and starts swimming out of the cave, Tsubasa simply shrugs. They should have already been used to give silly excuses to their siblings on why they are never on time in the castle. Quickly after that, both mermen get inside the room, their brothers are already there waiting to get further news about Dai.

“Anything?” Mamoru asks, but the immediate reply is negative.

“Not even the royal guard?! What happened to him? Where can he be?!” Eichi asks, the situation is too overwhelming for all.

“We need to be patient, I am sure Dai is fine wherever he is, he is a strong merman and we will find him on time,” Shu adds, he does not like the environment that is taking over the room.

“Shu is right, at this moment it’s better if we go to bed, tomorrow we can see if father allows us to go and look for him,” Shiki is the last one to speak, his brothers nodding at the suggestion and going to sleep.

Tsubasa looks at Shiki, he knows that the oldest is suffering for lying to his brothers, but until he can get a better solution for all this mess he will continue going on with the lie. Knowing this, the blond sighs, he will support Shiki to the end, and if there are any consequences to face at the end of all for their decision, they will face them together.

*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*|*

Dai is comfortably sleeping, it is the first time that he has slept in a human bed and he has to admit that is a lot more comfortable than the beds they have in the sea. The pillows are too fluffy and the blankets are just perfect, Dai snuggles towards the mattress, he wants to ignore the bright light for a bit longer. Something that does not last for a long time, someone knocks on the door; unable to emit any sound, he hopes the person goes away when no answer is given. Nevertheless, his hopes are quickly washed away when the door is slammed opened.

“Good morning, young man,” Kensuke’s voice is too loud and makes Dai feel wide awake.

“Kensuke, I told you to knock three times, the king said that it was not necessary to have him up already,” Kouki mentions with a stern voice.

“Oh… sorry, I forgot it since I saw that the doctor has already gotten here I thought we had to get him out of bed,” the dark haired-boy replies sheepishly smiling.

Dai opens his eyes even more, the doctor? Is he already here? What time is it? Did he oversleep? He has never overslept in all his life. He starts feeling uneasy, so he gets up of the bed without noticing that he is tangled with the blankets that made them fall hard against the floor.

“Oh my! Are you alright?” Kouki asks him and goes right next to him.

Dai feels horrible embarrassed by what happened and he quickly nods, standing up and leaving the blankets behind.

“Alright, if you are fine then we can go and take you to the bath, the doctor and the king are waiting for you to have breakfast together, so shall we get started?” Kouki explains and waits for the young man replies.

Dai nods one more time and goes with Kensuke and Kouki again to that room in which they keep the water in that thing that they call bathtub. Before letting him go into the water, Kensuke examines the shoulder, looking that the inflammation has decreased. The man smiles to Dai, letting him know that things seems better.

“I’m no doctor, but I think that he will give you very good news in regards of your shoulder at least,” Kensuke expresses, “Although, to be honest, you do not seem to have any serious injure, if you were in a ship wreckage you were a pretty lucky boy.”

“Kensuke…”

“Sorry, I did not want to be a bothered.”

Dai smiles and tries to let Kensuke know that there is no problem about those words. Then, the two men prepare the bath for Dai and indicates him to take off the clothes, as well as they point out the new clothes that he will be wearing today.

“Do you think you can do it all by yourself today?” Kouki asks, they know that the boy seem to have some difficulties with certain tasks that are pretty common so it is better to ask if he would be able to accomplish the tasks by himself.

Not being quite sure about it but wanting to show to be more independent, Dai nods. Therefore, Kensuke and Kouki leave the bathroom and allow the young man to be alone. Dai looks around, the thing that made the bubbles is there so he takes it and pours a bit of it into the water. The boy gets excited when he sees the bubbles starting to expand around all the water. Maybe, it does not feel as the ocean, but it is a good way to enjoy the water. He relaxes and let himself stay in the water for a long time, already forgetting about the doctor and the king that are waiting for him.

“Young man, please, remember that the king and the doctor are expecting you,” Kensuke’s voice speaks from outside the room.

Dai is startled by the voice and splashes water all around. He gets ashamed for all the mess he is causing in that room; however, he ignores it to start getting ready. As fast as he can, he dries himself and starts dressing up. It is a nice advantage that he has been always good at learning since he can easily remember how to put all this stuff. The clothes are similar from the ones that he wore yesterday, black boots, black pants, a light blue shirt and again a black vest. When he looks himself at the mirror, he smiles he likes to see himself dress up like this, to feel more part of the human world. Then, with some difficulties, since he cannot get used to the shoes and his legs still hurt a little, he walks to the door. Outside the room, Kensuke is waiting for him.

“Kouki is already helping with some other chores in the kitchen, but I am still here to take you with the king,” the young man expresses and helps Dai to walk through the halls.

Once again, they walk through the hall in which all the paints of those old men can be seen. Again, Dai tries to ignore all the looks, feeling hunt and intimidated by those people, but when they reach the last paint, he feels curious. He remembers as yesterday he felt even more frightened by that man’s eyes. Therefore, he decides to focus his attention on the last paint, he needs to know if there is a reason for him to feel like that. Thus, when they are closed to the door and closer to the paint, Dai directs his eyes to that paint, the feel is the same. He feels as he suffocates, his legs are shaking and now he also feels his heart beating faster. Unknown to him, images from the day in which his mother was killed start flashing in his mind, the images are too vivid and clear. The young man can even feel as he is back in the water, chasing after his mother, trying to get to her until he can see again her face covered in blood. Dai can even feel the smell of the blood that dyed the water with red that day. The awful pressure of the memories and the overwhelming emotions start to make him feel dizzy; Dai starts feeling terrified and at this point he is hyperventilating, he grabs stronger into Kensuke, trying not to fall.

“Young man, are you alright?” Kensuke asks when he feels that something is not going well with Dai, “young man?”

Kensuke only sees as Dai blacks out; the man tries to catch him up, but the boy still crashes against the floor. The sudden upheaval in the hall causes that Rikka, Hajime and the doctor comes out of the room to run into a scaring scene.

Dai is unconscious and Kensuke looks full of panic to the three new comers. Just what happened to him?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you thought it would be a DaiRikka date, but no, it was a flashback to explain the story a bit more XD   
> Thank you for reading <3


	7. The Dark Moon Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally Dai is going out with Rikka on his date, however the secrets that he discovered after that day breaks his heart more than anythig.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well another chapter! It's a bit shorter than the others, so sorry for that... yesterday was my day of: let's make Dai-chan suffer.... so,¿...

**Chapter 7: The Dark Moon Kingdom**

For some reason, he has a tremendous headache; and it is even weirder that he is back in his bed. Slowly, Dai tries to focus his sight and tries to think what was the last thing that happened? He looks around and sees that an unknown person is there, searching for something; he wants to call that person, but he does not know how to get his attention. Hoping that is not something disrespectful, Dai pulls the man’s coat causing the person to jump out in surprise.

“Oh, you scared me,” the man replies, “finally, you are awake, how are you feeling?”

Dai looks at the man and moves his hand trying to express that he feels regular.

“I see, well, before starting with the medical evaluation, let me introduce myself, I’m Morihito Arihara, I am the doctor of the royal family,” he says and smiles, “being honest, I just recently became the doctor of the royal family, but I’m glad to be able to help you.”

The young man nods, he is still confused with what is going on. The last thing he remembers is Kensuke guiding him to meet Rikka for breakfast. Also, where is Rikka? Shouldn’t he be there? Or is he supposed to be alone with the doctor? Dai keeps furrowing his brows by thinking on all the different questions that keeps getting to his mind. To the point that he has already forgotten about the doctor that is right in front of him.

“Young man, are you alright?”

Dai gets startled and looks back at Morihito. The light blue haired man nods, but he makes an attempt to ask for where Rikka is. To his surprise, Morihito understands his question and let him know that the king had to attend some important issues after breakfast.

“Hajime is pretty demanding and didn’t allow the king to come until he could fix those issues,” at those words Dai seems disappointed.

Does it mean that Rikka will not take him to the town today? Being someone really good at reading other people’s emotions, Morihito pats Dai’s back and smiles at him.

“Before I forget, the king asked me to tell you that he will come for you, but we need to examine you first, ok?”

The young boy’s mood immediately changes, and he nods excitedly. His date with Rikka is still something possible and all he has to do is complete this thing called medical evaluation.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

After finally accomplishing the different tasks that Hajime has assigned him for the day, the king, Rikka, goes straight to Dai’s room. They have taken the boy there after he had blacked out, so Morihito could watch over him and see if there was any irregular condition. Being careful of not interrupting the doctor, Rikka knocks on the door and waits until he can hear Morihito’s voice.

“Excuse me, so how are things going over here?”

The question seems not to be the best at the moment. Once Rikka is inside the room, he can see as Dai is sheltered in the corner of his bed, with his right hand over his left shoulder. The light blue eyes show resentment and are throwing daggers at Arihara; the blond man looks back at Rikka with a sheepish smile.

“His shoulder was just a tiny bit out of place and well… I put it back in the right place,” the doctor explains, “Since that moment, he has been cornered over there, but that was the last part of the medical evaluation.”

Rikka nods at the explanation and motions to Arihara to go closer so they can speak. The king also moves his hands to Dai to indicate him to wait there until they can finish their talk. The light blue haired boy nods and slowly he starts coming out of his hide out.

“Anything unusual?” the king asks.

“No, my lord; the most serious injured he had was the one on his shoulder; I was actually amazed that he had been able to move his arm like that,” the doctor replies and keeps going, “his legs are a bit stiff, but nothing too serious, he does not look as someone who has been in a ship wreckage, no cuts, no bruises, nothing that can show physical injures.”

“I see… and according to Souchi there have been no records of recent ship-wreckages,” Rikka adds and looks nostalgic at the boy.

“A whole mystery then,” Morihito continues and sighs, “at least, I can assure that he is strong and healthy, his situation must be more psychological than anything else.”

“I see, thank you so much for your help, Morihito.”

The king replies and moves his head so they can go closer to the young man. Rikka sits next to Dai, who is still looking at Morihito with hurtful eyes. The pink haired giggles at the scene, this is a cute side of this young boy.

“I am really sorry, young man,” the bespectacled man expresses, “I wish I could know your name so it could be a better apology, but…”

“Ah, that’s true, we still do not know your name, guess that is going to be my special task for the day,” Rikka mentions and looks at Dai.

The young man slightly blushes and looks away, Rikka is just so kind and beautiful that he cannot control his heart beating so fast. Minutes later, they all move to the dining room, since Dai blacked out before being able to reach said room and couldn’t have breakfast. Rikka asks the young man to eat the different dishes that are waiting for him.

“I asked the chef to prepare a sweet breakfast for you, I hope you like it!” Rikka says with a smile on his face, “I will be right back, alright?”

Dai nods and sees as Rikka walks with Morihito. Honestly, he hopes not too see the doctor around too soon. The reason, well what Morihito did with his shoulder has helped him to feel better, but it was too painful for him. How was it possible that that guy could be that strong? Dai shudders by remembering the moment. However, he prefers to leave that aside and so he looks back at the dish right in front of him. Making sure of being careful he takes the fork and the knife and takes a little portion of the round thing on the dish and eats it. Definitely, it has the same kind of sweet taste from last night’s cake; then, being curious by the yellowish thing in one of the plates, he pours a bit on the rest of the food. This action only causes that everything gets to be even sweeter, something that makes Dai happier and more excited about eating his breakfast.

“You will need to drink some water, unless your sweet-tooth allows you to eat all of that without a problem.”

Rikka says at the moment when he comes back; Dai tilts his head unsure of what the words mean. The pink haired smiles, the boy’s innocence is so gorgeous that he cannot avoid the action. On the other side, the light blue haired boy blushes, he is not sure of why Rikka has smiled to him, but he is completely sure that that is the most beautiful image of the day so far.

“Before we go out, you have to finish your breakfast,” Rikka speaks out loud and sits next to the boy, “Mori just told me that you don’t seem to be weak, not even dehydrated, but it’s better to prevent since you blacked out.”

Dai looks surprised at the pink haired, so that is what happened, he blacked out. Still, the reason why it is not cleared to him and it seems that is not even cleared for Rikka. The young boy can perceive the worry look on Rikka’s face and his heart aches. Dai does not want to be the reason why Rikka is sad. The light blue haired boy hesitates for a moment and feeling as his heart is about to come out from his chest; he dares to place his hand over Rikka’s hand. Hoping that with this action he can make the pink haired man feels better. Dai’s face is completely red and this is the first time he is thankful that he does not have his voice; otherwise he would not be able to produce a single coherent word. Just when he is about to put his hand back, he perceives as Rikka places his other hand over his own.

“You are such a wonderful person, I really want to know your name, so I can talk to you more properly.”

Dai looks conflicted, he wishes he could say his name, he wishes he could say all he needs to tell to Rikka, but he made that pact. He can only show a tiny smile to the pink haired man in front of him, trying to comfort him and trying to make him feel that things are alright like this. After Dai finishes his breakfast, they are ready to go; Rikka allows him to support on him so Dai can feel more secure when walking. Although, if the former merman should be honest, walking has become easier. He has gotten used to the movement he has to performed and he has even gotten familiar with the pain to the extent that it has become a numb pain.

Out of the castle the day looks beautiful, the sky is clear, there is a gentle breeze going around and the temperature is just perfect for a nice walk. Dai looks at everything with curious eyes, he wants to ask so many things, “what is the name of the thing that can take people around?” “what is the name of those creatures?” “what is the flavor of that thing that the kid is eating?” He wants to ask about all the stuff he is looking, but he knows that for now he can only enjoy the view. When they reach the center of the town, a lot of the people over there start greeting Rikka, every one showing love and gratitude for the king. Dai smiles, he loves to see that Rikka is so appreciated by all people in the kingdom. Then, three familiar faces and the creature from the other day are seen.

“Rikka!!!!” one of the kids screams out loud, without a doubt is Ichiru, Dai thinks as the boy comes closer with Mico.

“Hello, I didn’t know you were all out of the castle too,” the king says while he bents to pick up Ichiru and carry him, “I see that Issei is today in charge of taking care of Mico, good job Issei!”

“He asked me to let him guide Mico today, he can also be a strong boy!”

“I am sorry my king, they heard I was coming out to get some stuff and they begged me to bring them with me,” Kensuke explains rubbing his hair with his hand.

“It is fine, they are alright, so I do not see any problem.”

Before Rikka could continue speaking, Ichiru interrupts, pointing out to a group of people that are dancing. The little boy looks excited to all the dancers, it is obvious he wants to join.

“Rikka, Rikka!! Please, let’s dance together!!” the boy asks moving his arms in an excited way.

The king looks back at Kensuke, the man immediately understands. He would have to stay there and wait until both twins want to leave, but at least he can be ease by the fact that the king gave him permission to do so. The pink haired man puts the kid down, and the little boy instantly takes him by the hand to guide him where the people are dancing.

“I’ll be back,” Rikka mentions to Dai before he gets to be farther away.

“We can actually get closer, you want to see them dancing, right?”

Kensuke asks him and Dai nods, he is more than thrilled to see Rikka dancing. The dark-haired man smiles and tells Issei to walk with them and Mico closer to where the crowd is. Then, after a brief pause to welcome the king, the music starts playing again; the melody has a nice rhythm, perfect for dancing. However, Dai is not too focused on the music, he is actually hypnotized by the gracious movements that the king performs. It does not matter that he is dancing with a kid, he looks like a professional, and he definitely looks beautiful with every step he makes. The light blue haired man’s eyes sparkle with happiness by being able to see this; nevertheless, being so focused on the dance, he does not realize that Issei is pulling his clothes. Therefore, it takes him a while to look down and see that the boy has been asking for his attention.

“Eh? Issei? Do you want to dance too?” Kensuke asks him when he sees the action as well.

The boy shakes his head in a negative response, but he is still asking Dai to give him his hand.

“I guess he wants you to go with him, I’ll take care of Mico, go,” the cheerful man says and takes the dog’s leash.

Nonetheless, Dai is not so excited of going, what is he supposed to do? He only knows how to dance under the sea, and being completely sincere, he is the worst at dancing among his brothers. It didn’t matter how many times Tsubasa has practiced with him alone, he just could not learn how to move with elegance. Dai feels as his heart is beating faster, even more when Issei, with just his look, asks his brother to leave Rikka so Dai can dance with him. The younger twin seems disappointed, but then he smiles.

“Ok, just because you are our newest guest and you look like a cool guy,” the twin says.

“You are a cute and kind gentleman,” Rikka tells him patting his head and he sees as the twins go back with Kensuke.

Dai is looking down, he really does not know how to dance and he does not want to make an embarrassing scene in front of Rikka. If he could move his legs faster, he would leave this place immediately, but he has just learnt how to walk, left apart run. Then, when he is about to burst into tears, he senses as Rikka takes his hands and place one on his waist and firmly holds the other one. The light blue haired man looks at Rikka completely confused and hoping that his eyes can express how confused he feels.

“It is alright, I will guide you, ok?” Rikka practically whispers, “just relax.”

That is the last thing Rikka says before he starts moving; knowing that the young man has not been very good at moving his legs; the pink haired man tries to go for soft movements without pressuring Dai. The king is the one who is practically doing all the dance, twirling around, getting closed to Dai to then move away and always being gently in guiding the young man. After a couple of minutes, the tallest boy feels a bit more confident and stops looking to his feet to instead look at Rikka. Dai sheepishly smiles as if he has accomplished a huge triumph by being able to dance with his beloved Rikka. In returned, the pink haired looks at him with tender eyes and a soft and caring smile; with that Dai is sure that his heart has skipped a beat and he also loses all his concentration. Therefore, he trips which causes that Rikka also misses a step, resulting in both of them falling to the ground. The music suddenly stops and people around them goes quickly to help the king and the young man that are on the floor. Dai is completely ashamed for how things ended, he cannot even look at Rikka, but that quickly changes when he hears Rikka giggling.

“My king, are you alright?” Kensuke asks after he has gotten closed to them, the twins tracing after him with Mico.

“Did it hurt?” Ichiru quickly questions.

“No, no, really, I am alright, what about you? Are you alright?” the king asks to the young mand trying to hold his laugh.

Dai, still unknown of the reason why Rikka is laughing, nods and hurriedly stands up. Rikka accepts Kensuke’s help to stand up as well and he also indicates to everyone that he is fine. Due to this action, people start going off, some of them continue to dance, some others continue with their errands. In the case of the king and company they walk away from the dancing place. When they are reaching a division on paths, the king asks Kensuke to go with the twins to the castle, being specific that he will be out with the young man for some extra time.

Dai looks surprised to the king; he was completely sure that after causing such a disaster Rikka would be desperate to go back to the castle and not seeing him more during the day. Instead, they have gone to have lunch at one humble inn, at the beginning Dai gets nervous again for possible mistakes he can make. However, every time he sees that the pink haired is looking at him, smiling at him, he feels much better and the fear of doing something clumsy goes away. After having enjoy some sweets, they leave the place and minutes later the two of them goes to the beach.  The two men are now walking through the shore, Dai looks at the ocean wondering if Shiki and Tsubasa are already there; hiding between the waves or if they would come later; he cannot even see if Lupus is around. Getting distracted in his thoughts, he does not perceive that Rikka is looking at him with a smile. The light blue haired man blushes and goes back to look at the ocean, the view makes him feel calmer and thus he is able to breath with normality again.

“I am sorry, I was thinking what could be your name, so I was paying attention to your face,” Rikka explains and stops his steps.

The king points to the young man to take a seat on the sand right next to him. the young man nods and follows the instructions. He can listen to Rikka sighing, then the king stretches out and clears his throat.

“I am going to say some names, if I say yours… you have to… hug me!” Rika proposes and the boy looks at him with a shocked face, “I’m kidding, but you have to do something if I say your name, ok?”

The king adds later, seeing that the boy was too shaken with his initial proposal he prefers to change and make it a bit funnier. After all, he still does not know what kind of experience or event brought the young man to his lands.

“I am going to start with the ones I can easily remember because I also believe that is not your name, but just to make sure,” Rikka states, “Kensuke… Kouki… Issei… Ichiru… Hajime… Souchi… Morihito?”

At the last name, Dai not only shakes his head in a negative reply, he also furrows his brow and moves back. Rikka cannot avoid his laugh, it seems that the young man is still resentful for the actions that the doctor had to do. After a brief pause, Rikka continues.

“What about Teika… no? let’s see… Takuma… not at all… mmmm I’m running out of ideas, Tonbo? Not that one either…” the pink haired makes a pause to think a bit more and then keeps going, “Eiji, no? ah ok, let’s keep trying, Hayato?”

The light blue haired boy shakes his head again in a negative reply, probably Rikka will not be able to guess his name. Probably, he would have to get used to be called “young man” by everyone in the kingdom if he is not able to accomplish his goal. Although, if he is not able to accomplish the goal, it means that he would have to go back to the sea and become Shun’ slave. Dai sighs, again feeling scared of the possible future consequences.

 “I’m sorry, but I promise I won’t give up until guessing your name.”

The king says, and Dai feels embarrassed, it might be possible that Rikka thought that he was sighing because he has not been able to guess his name.

“Let’s try with… Keito? Not that one… ok… well… what about Dai?”

At the mention of his name, Dai cannot stop his emotion. He nods, his eyes seem to sparkle and his smile is even bigger than when he has eaten the sweets. Rikka is also happy to have gotten the right name after all those attempts.

“It’s a beautiful name,” the king says after a while, “I… I actually mentioned that name because that was my father’s name.”

Dai looks with sadness at Rikka, again what he does not want to do is happening. The pink haired it’s gloomy because of him.

“Ah please, please, do not get me wrong, I do like the name, and I loved my father, but I know he did too many things in the wrong way,” Rikka explains and hesitates before continuing, “Our kingdom is known as “The Dark Moon Kingdom” the reason…”

The king stops over there, the history of how his father got their kingdom to be strong and respect by everyone is something that he hates. During some years, he tried really hard to understand the way his father acted, he tried it so hard for himself, for his mother. However, it was impossible, he could only see the suffering his father caused to other people, to other kingdoms.

“My father, he heard about a legend… about a kingdom hidden under the sea,” Rikka starts telling, “This kingdom was blessed by the moon, the moon gave to it a beautiful mermaid queen whose blood, hair, and scales could provide of never ending power to the person who get to own them.”

Listening to the narration, Dai has gone numb, he knows what kingdom Rikka is talking about it, he knows about the queen. The queen… his mother, could it be? No, no, he does not want to believe that Rikka’s father was the person who killed his mother. He wishes to stop Rikka, but he cannot pronounce a single sound and is unable to move. His heart is beating faster, he feels his face getting hot and his eyes are itchy, he wants to leave, Dai does not want to know the end of the story.

“Years ago, other kingdoms had declared war over us, we did not have the power nor the resources to survive and being desperate to defend the people he loved, father went to the sea to hunt the queen.”

All of a sudden, Dai stands up, he really does not need to know the end of the story, he knows it already, he was there. The light blue haired man starts walking to the ocean, he needs to see his brothers, he needs to go somewhere, but he cannot return to the castle. Rikka screams his name and starts walking after him, the king grabs his wrist and makes him look back. The pink haired gets really worried when he sees Dai’s crying face.

“Dai, what is it? I am sorry, I am very sorry.”

Being honest, Rikka does not know why he is apologizing, he does not even know what is happening to Dai. However, he simply feels that is the right thing to do. Dai falls on his knees, now everything makes sense, he understands why the last painting in that creepy hall scares him. He saw that face, he recognizes the face of the man who murdered his mom. Looking at the portrait all the memories he has pushed into the deepest part of his memories are coming back. He can recall the humans screaming the name of their king, screaming “kill her, Dai,” he remembers as his mother also whispered his name one last time and he was so confused. He did not understand back then why his name was being mentioned by the humans. Dai could not understand why people could ask him to kill his own mother, but now…now he knows the truth. They were not talking to him, they were talking to Rikka’s father. All of those memories are coming back so fast, he wishes he could have only remained with the scene of his mother, but now he has the full picture of that moment.

Dai feels as the tears fall down his face, he feels as his heart aches, why did he fall in love with this person? Why? Because even now that he knows that Rikka is the son of his mother’s killer, he cannot stop his feelings of love. He simply cannot do it. The light blue haired boy keeps crying, desperate trying to find an answer to all his questions, and Rikka in a desperate attempt to help the boy hugs him. The pink haired wraps Dai with his arms as tight as he can, and he pats his head trying to soothe him from the suffering, trying to calm the boy’s aching heart.

“I am sorry, Dai, I do not know how, but I will help you, ok?”

Dai only reacts to hug Rikka back, still crying, still feeling the pain that he thought it was never going to come back. They stay like that for a while, Dai gets to lean his head on Rikka’s shoulder and the pink haired keeps stroking the young man’s hair. When Dai gets to stop his crying, he realizes that the sun has started to set, which means that his brothers may be already there. Desperate, the taller man stands up and without a second thought he gets himself into the water. He knows he cannot talk, he knows that he will not be able to tell to his brothers what he has discovered, but he only wants a hug from Shiki and Tsubasa. Nevertheless, Rikka traces after him, calling him out. When Dai is finally able to distinguish Tsubasa’s hair among the waves, he is again caught by Rikka.

“Dai, please, don’t do this, we have to go back to the castle,” the pink haired tells him, his look shows fear.

Dai wants to stay, he looks back at where his brothers are, he is not sure if Rikka can see them, but before he can risk his brother’ safety, Dai nods. Before starting to walk back to the castle, the boy looks back to his brothers, he gives them a tiny smile, but the tears on his eyes are still visible.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

“That human made him cry!!!!!!” Tsubasa expresses when Rikka and Dai are back to the shore.

“What could have happened?” Shiki murmurs and keeps his eyes locked at Dai and the human, “for some reason, I think it’s better that we do not talk to him today, it seems that he has had a rough day.”

“He is not the only one,” Tsubasa adds looking with a sad expression to Shiki.

The older merman tries to ignore the face that the blond is given him.

“It is an option, do not take it as the final resolution, ok?” the purple haired man tells him looking away and diving into the water.

“Yeah right, for our dear uncle it was not just an option,” Tsubasa murmurs and get himself into the water following Shiki.

Even if Dai had forbidden them to go and negotiate with the White Wizard, they went to him. The results were something that they were expecting, and of course, they needed to share with Dai what happened. Nonetheless, the image of their little brother with that nostalgic face made them feel that today it was not a proper day to share with him the new option.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is making sense... I needed to have someone as Rikka's father and before going to this option I went back to read the chapter in which Dai saw the portraits for the first time and it said that some people look similar to Rikka... so it was fine to leve Dai (the manager) as his father... yes, as you see I rarely plan my fics...  
> Thanks for reading!


	8. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felling nostalgic, Shiki starts thinking about the past, remembering all those old times in which things were not that simple but were definitely easier than now. On the other hand, Dai is still trying to accept what he has learnt and is trying to fight the memories from his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I have learnt that wheneer I stay in my apartment I get more time to write and I update faster... plus Hyorotto Danshi this weekend was a HUGE inspiration XDD

**Chapter 8: Memories**

After they have returned from the surface and they have shared a conversation at Dai’s hide out; Tsubasa and Shiki have gone to sleep. Their brothers following their example and the room getting quiet almost immediately. Unfortunately, for the oldest brother, sleeping is not something that he can accomplish that easily. It has never been something common for him and even less with the current situation that his youngest brother is going through. When Shiki has confirmed that Tsubasa is deeply slept, he gets up; carefully he lifts the pillow and takes a brilliant object. Grabbing it with his hand, he goes out of the room; slowly, he swims to the castle’s garden. The flow of the water is calmed and almost makes Shiki get lost into it to fall sleep. Nevertheless, he is stubborn and instead of allowing the water to help him to get some rest, he opens his hand and takes a look to the object. Memories from one day that now seems too far away come into his mind, he sighs and for an instant he wishes he could go back into time.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

It has been a year since that tragic event happened. Slowly, the kingdom has started to recover after the loss of the queen. Merpeople showing smiles and more happiness in their daily routines; without a doubt this changed has brought a whole new atmosphere. Even the princes have started to practice and develop their talents once again. Of course, the older brothers are in charge of helping the younger ones and helping between each other as well. However, there is the special case of Dai, who only gets to practice with Shiki and Lupus; and rarely he accepts Tsubasa as well as part of the trainers.

Today is one of those days in which Dai is not going to allow anyone but Shiki to go with him. Not even if Tsubasa has offered him to play with him or do whatever he wants to, Dai is strongly clinging to just Shiki.

“Stop it, it’s getting late and he needs to practice today,” Shiki says and starts going away.

“Dai!!! Please!!!” Tsubasa insists one more time, but the youngest hides his face with his hands.

“You know that means ‘no’ for him, so go back and help Ryota for today.”

Without given him more chances, Shiki swims away while carrying Dai. The light blue haired merboy has not spoken yet since the day that everything happened. Therefore, all the brothers have started to understand the different signs that Dai uses to communicate.

“So, where do you want to go?”

The oldest brother asks and Dai looks around and then he extends his arms up.

“To the surface? It is kind of late for that and father would not like it,” Shiki replies and sees the sadness on his brother’s face, “What about to the wreckage zone? It is also fun and there are some kind of obstacles for you to overcome,” the proposal gets to be really exciting to the youngest.

Dai starts nodding and then he places his hand on Shiki’s chest, which means that he wants his brother to stop.

“What is it? Ah… you saw Lupus,” Shiki deduces when he sees the dolphin swimming towards them, “So, you do want Lupus to come with us, but didn’t want Tsubasa to come?”

Dai blushes, he cannot really explain why he did not want his other brother to come, so he lowers his head and throws his arms to Lupus. Shiki grins, Dai is starting to learn how to be clever and run away from uncomfortable situations.

“Fine, fine, so you do not want to explain, then let’s go to the wreckage zone and show me what you can do today.”

Dai smiles and nods; the little merman swims right next to Lupus, and every once in a while, he looks back to make sure that Shiki is coming after him. Once they reach the place, in which some ships have sunk due to the barrier that their father has placed, Dai starts swimming faster and playing around with Lupus. Probably, now that they are here, Shiki understands why Dai likes to come only with him. He has always let his little brother swims freely and only once in a while demands him to do something in a stricter way. Looking at Dai swimming with such a bright smile makes Shiki more than happy and suddenly realizing that that can be the perfect inspiration for a song. At this moment, he does not have any of his stuff for song writing, but at least he can start thinking about the lyrics and maybe the kind of rhythm that he would like for the song. The oldest brother gets to be completely lost on his idea, and so when he looks back at where Dai is supposed to be he gets frightened by not seeing his brother nor the dolphin. Shiki snaps out of his song writing moment and he immediately starts looking for his brother.

“Dai!!” he yells, but of course there is not going to be any answer.

He gets more desperate when he sees a shark coming around the place. Shiki starts looking at every single ship and swims as fast as he can when he finally gets to have a glimpse of Dai. The little merboy is inside one of the ships and he has not realized of the shark that is marauding. The purple haired merman gets inside the ship as well and is frantic to take Dai out of there.

“Lupus, quick, take Dai out of here!” the oldest brother orders and makes Dai hold into Lupus.

Dai looks scared at his brother, what is going on? He tries to hold into Shiki, but his brother orders Lupus to move. Nevertheless, the little one does not go with the dolphin, Dai let go of Lupus and swims to the opposite direction when he sees something that catches his attention. When Shiki notices what Dai is doing he goes after his little brother. The sudden action being caught by the shark that starts hitting the old and rotten walls of the ship.

“Dai!” Shiki screams at him making him jump out of surprise.

The little merboy tries to show something to Shiki, but then he sees the shark behind his brother. Dai’s eyes go wide opened and he curls himself trying to protect himself. Luckily, Shiki is able to get him and dodge the shark’s attack, quickly he swims among the rubbles that are falling, trying to confuse the shark. When they are about to get to an exit, the shark hits one of the walls one more time blocking the route of escape. Dai clings to Shiki even stronger, they are trapped, even if Shiki keeps swimming around, there are only more and more rubbles. Nevertheless, Shiki sees that there is a small opening. Dai will be totally able to go through it and escape.

“Dai, listen, you have to swim really fast, you have to go through that hole, ok?”

The little merboy feels as if he is living all over again that moment with his mother. His brother is about to sacrifice himself just to let him live, why is this happening again? Dai hides his face with one of his hand, he is already crying and does not want to obey his brother.

“I am not going to repeat it, go!” the purple haired merman says and pushes his brother up so he can get to the only exit.

Dai looks back and sees as the shark is coming with all its strength against Shiki. His blue eyes are full of tears, he feels powerless by just observing the moment.

“Shiki!!!!!”   

Dai’s voice echoes around the place; the little merboy sees as the shark gets to hit Shiki. However, just in that moment he is not able to see anymore what is going on inside the wreckage of that ship. The little merboy stays outside, waiting for the water to become clearer and find his brother again. Dai stays there sitting on the sand, feeling as the minutes feel like an eternity and praying that Shiki can come out. He holds his tiny hands to his chest, he is still hiccupping and tears are nonstop falling down his cheeks.

“Shiki, Shiki, Shiki…” the merboy starts repeating the name of his brother and closes his eyes, he does not want to go back to the castle alone, he does not want the story to be repeated all over again.

He keeps his eyes closed, still whispering his brother’s name, still hoping to see him. Dai is about to collapse until he feels a hand caressing his hair, when he looks up he can see his older brother smiling at him. The teen merman has some injures, but he is there. Shiki is with Dai, and he is accompanied by Lupus and Shiki’s dolphin, Fides. The boy does not even hesitate on his actions and hugs his older brother, letting himself cried out his fear and frustration.

“So, you are able to speak again?” Shiki asks, happy to see that this has had a remarkable good result for the two of them.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The boy repeats over and over again, he knows it was his fault that his brother resulted hurt.

“It is alright, look, Lupus was pretty smart and went for help, Lupus and Fides helped me against that beast,” the purple haired man says trying to make his little brother feel better.

“I was dumb!”

Dai yells; nevertheless, he just wanted to grab the object for Shiki. He wanted to give something special to his brother, that is why he didn’t want Tsubasa to come. Dai wanted to show his gratitude to Shiki.

“A gift,” the merboy mentions between sobs and shows the silver rounded thing that he has in his hand.

Shiki is not sure on what to do. This is a human object, something that their father will not approve to have inside the castle. Nonetheless, he has understood now everything; Dai has gotten inside that ship looking for a present to give him. Thus, the little merman was not going out of the ship until getting something that he could consider valuable to give to his older brother.

“So, this is why you went back?” Shiki questions him with a grin on his face.

The little merboy nods and rubs his eyes that are completely red from crying so much.

“Thank you, Dai, I’ll treasure this forever.”

Shiki is more than sure that if their father ever finds out that he is keeping a human object inside the castle he would be a dead merman. However, he could not care less at the moment, looking how Dai’s face gets to brighten up and the fact that he is being hugged again by his little brother makes it totally worth.

“Now, now, we need to come up with an excuse, we are not supposed to come here… so they cannot know we have a little problem in this place,” the oldest expresses looking around to make sure that none of his brothers is spying on them.

“It hurts?” Dai questions touching one of the scratches on Shiki’s face.

The teen closes one of his eyes and complains a bit scaring Dai with the action.

“It’s fine, I’ll be fine, so don’t worry,” Shiki replies before Dai starts crying again, “Now, let’s go to the castle, we will think something on the way home.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°°**°*°*°*°*

Shiki laughs melancholically at the memory, even if he had planned a whole story to tell to his brothers and his father; Dai had spoken the truth. Probably, that was also the time when he learnt that it was better to act on the way and not having a lot of plans done.

“In that moment I wished you weren’t able to talk, father did have a great idea of a punishment for me after what happened there…” Shiki whispers and sighs again.

The oldest thought he was alone over there. Nevertheless, the third son of the king has been there for a while; hesitant about speaking with his brother or just letting the opportunity pass.

“But to be honest, I wish you could talk now, things will be easier for you and even for us… we could know if you are really alright if no one is hurting you now…” Shiki whispers again looking at the object in his hand.

“You know where he is?” Shu speaks out loud letting himself be seen by Shiki, but the way that his brother talked, what he just said… it made Shu feel really surprise.

“Shu? What are you doing here? Why are you not sleeping?”

“We need to talk now!” with that being said, Shu takes Shiki by the wrist and makes him go with him.

Shiki, tries to free himself from Shu’s hold, insisting that they should go back to the room with their brothers and sleep. However, when he realizes where Shu has taken him, he gets too stunned to keep fighting against his brother, and now he also needs answers.

“How do you…?”

“I saw all of you more than once swimming into this place, Dai, Tsubasa and you, always coming here in secret.”

Shu confesses and looks around the place that is already filled with just rests of what used to be Dai’s collection. By looking at it, he can see that their youngest brother did work hard on having all those tiny treasures. Then, he perceives an awful feeling of guilty; he knows he did not reveal the secret to their parents, but he did nothing to help that day.

“Listen, I am not going to judge you, I do not have the power nor the right to do it, but…”

“But?” Shiki questions, he already does not know what to expect from his brother and he knows he has spoken more than what he should.

“Be honest, tell me what is going on, I am completely sure that you and Tsubasa know what is going on with Dai,” Shu expresses trying to stay calm, but it is hard for him when he thinks about all the recent events, “come on Shiki, you have been taking care of Dai for practically 16 years, you have to know!”

The oldest son knows that Tsubasa would probably kill him because of what he is about to do. He sits there and takes a deep breath, the oldest ask Shu to sit next to him. After that, Shiki is not even sure on how to start and that’s why he goes with the most important thing first.

“You have to keep the secret, otherwise I will not tell you a single thing, or in the case that you deceive me, I will find the way to keep your mouth shut,” he sentences and looks completely serious at Shu.

“Shiki?!”

“I’m going back to the castle…”

“Fine! I will not say anything!” Shu replies, he knows he will feel mortify by lying to his other brothers, but at least he will know what is going one and that’s all he needs.

Shiki sighs, and nods. If he knows something about Shu is that he will accomplish his word no matter what. Now, after being tranquil that his brother will keep his mouth closed, Shiki starts at the moment when everything went wrong and tries to make it as simple as he can.

“So right now, he is living in the human castle…”

Shiki looks up to see Shu’s reaction. This is of course, more than what Shu can handle; the merman is looking to a dead point, with no possible words coming out of his mouth. At this moment, Shiki is not sure if he should continue adding the new details that just happened that afternoon, or if it is better to end up the story there.

“So…” Shu says with a trembling voice, “the White Wizard, our uncle… did take revenge on us through Dai…”

“Yes… but… I have not told you everything yet…”

The oldest says with a hint of doubt in his voice; which is not longer a tiny doubt after he sees Shu’s eyes practically throwing signs of alert. Maybe he should have left this part for a different day.

“As I told you, Dai cannot speak and we know how he is,” Shiki hates the fact that they are not having so much faith in his brother, but Dai has never been good at expressing himself, “so being honest I am truly scared that he cannot accomplished his goal.”

“Making this human fall in love with him?” Shu questions trying to verify that he has understood everything.

“Yes, so I went to talk with the White Wizard, I mean with our uncle.”

“Shiki!!!”

He should have known that Shu would not take this in a very good manner. Although, if he thinks about it, it is much better to tell this to Shu than to Mamoru. The second brother would go and informed the king because he would be probably too confused with the whole situation. Then, he thinks about Eichi and Ryota… no, definitely they are no good options either. Eichi will panic and pass out for all the mess that this situation has become. Then, in the case of Ryota, he would go to the king, but just because he would love to see his brothers in troubles. After allowing a moment to Shu to recover, Shiki continues. He informs Shu about the visit he gave to his uncle, of course accompanied by Tsubasa. Unfortunately, they could not get anything on the reason why he is doing this, but they got to make a new deal.

“Shiki… you and Tsubasa are going to exchange yourselves in the case that Dai fails… why?”

“Every time I think about Dai’s life… I… it’s unfair, he saw mother being killed, he lost his ability to speak due to the trauma… and he has always been apart of the rest of us, so I think that he deserves to be with whoever he loves, even if it is a human and if he fails he deserves to come back home…”

Shiki expresses., he has honestly given a huge amount of thinking to all of this.

“But this is not fair for you or for Tsubasa, there must be another way to solve this!”

Shu screams, but Shiki does not even show one single reaction to the words. Yes, it might be unfair for them, they did not fall in love with a human, they did not fall into the White Wizard’s trick. However, they are Dai’s brothers, they have been responsible of Dai because they made that decision. No one forced them to accomplish more than a simple role of brothers, but back when Dai was just a little merboy he only trusted them. The purple haired man feels as a knot starts forming on his throat again, just how many times is he going to fail to his little brother? If he can assure that this time Dai will have a safe place to come back, if he can make sure that no matter what the outcome of this deal gets to be, Dai will be alright…

Then, that’s all he needs.

“Have you thought that Dai will suffer once that he knows that his most precious brothers are going to take his place?”

The question hurts Shiki, he knows, he has thought about it. Being honest, he did not want Tsubasa to be in the same position. Shiki wanted that Tsubasa could stay at the castle, that he wasn’t part of the new deal. Nevertheless, as usual, the blond was too stubborn to let him negotiate by his own and under his conditions. The purple haired merman sighs, he wishes he could stop time so he could think in more solutions or find a way in which he can get a positive outcome for everyone.

“I know,” Shiki whispers, “that’s why I need to find the truth…”

“The truth?”

“I feel as if there is more than just what we know,” the older brother says and then continues, “we never knew about the reason why father exiled our uncle, but just in that moment our uncle claimed that he would take revenge on us.”

“Something happened when he was in the human world,” Shu deduces and Shiki nods.

“That’s what I need to find out.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

Back in the castle, Rikka has accompanied Dai to his room. The king has made sure that Dai is completely fine; since he is still too shocked by the reaction that Dai had when they were at the beach. Nevertheless, the light blue haired boy has not looked at Rikka in all that time, not even once. The young man is still confused, why is life playing this joke on him? Why is it that he fell in love with someone who is related to the person who killed his mother?

“Dai, are you really alright?” Rikka asks him.

He listens to the question, but he does not even try to respond. All he is thinking is about going to the ocean, all he wants is to see his brothers. He should have never made the deal with the White Wizard, he should have never come here. He should have forgotten about his feelings just as Shiki and Tsubasa told him in the beginning.

“Dai?”

The tone of voice coming from Rikka makes him look at the pink haired. He sees as the king’s eyes are showing concern, how could Rikka be the son of that monster? Dai wonders as he keeps his eyes locked with Rikka’s eyes. The pink haired is gentle, generous, and Dai can feel so much kindness coming from Rikka. Then, when Rikka calls his name out loud again, Dai nods, hoping that the pink haired really believes that he is alright.

“You know my room is right next to yours, if you need something I…”

Dai nods again and tries to keep his smile as much as possible so Rikka can convince himself that he is alright. The king smiles back and stands up, one more time he tells Dai to call him in case that he needs anything. The pink haired walks slowly towards the door and before leaving the room he looks back at the taller man. Dai is now looking to the moon from the window, but his eyes reflects how lost he feels and that view breaks Rikka’s heart.

“Good night,” Rikka says, but the other boy does not even look back.

Feeling devastated and more tired than usual, Dai decides to go to bed. It is not useful to keep thinking on the facts that he has discovered. Closing his eyes and praying to be able to forget while he sleeps, he curls up and let himself to drift into sleep. However, the memories, that have come back, start to even chase him in his dreams. Dai sees himself back into that day. The boy is reviving the moment, and he sees as his mother tells him to go away, he observes again as Rikka’s father wields the harpoon and kills his mother with just one hit.

Dai wakes up in the middle of the night, he is agitated and disoriented. When he gets up of the bed, he trips with the blankets. The young man tries to stand up, but he only ends up throwing a glass and a jug from the night table. Due to that action, the crystals of the broken objects are scattered all around the floor, but he is not paying attention to that. On the contrary, Dai is still trying to fight against the memories, he does not even perceive that his hands and legs are getting cut by the broken pieces of glass.

“Dai!” the king screams when he opens the door and sees the scene.

Dai is on the floor; his eyes are showing extreme fear, his body is shaking, and he is barely breathing. Rikka runs towards him, he notices that the boy is having a panic attack, but he does not have an idea of what has triggered this. The pink haired tries to hug Dai, but the young man pushes him back, tears falling down his face, and his hands and legs are starting to get covered by blood.

“Dai!” Rikka calls out his name again and fights against the attempt of the young boy to push him back to finally hug him, “I apologize, I don’t know what I did or what I said that I made you feel this bad, but please forgive me!”

The king expresses, the phrase makes Dai snap out of the living nightmare he was having. Then, the taller man finally looks at Rikka, the person with the one he fell in love. The real Rikka… not the son of his mother’s killer. Dai cannot avoid the tears that keep falling down his cheeks, now with more strength since he sees Rikka’ suffering face. The young man wishes he could reply, he wishes he could say that he has not done anything wrong because he has finally understood that Rikka is not the king who killed his mother. Rikka is not guilty of his father’s mistakes… the pink haired had even told him that he disagreed in decisions that his father has made; and still Dai has been scared of Rikka.

“Do you forgive me?” the pink haired asks him, he is still hugging Dai strongly and is not letting him go until he can feel that Dai has completely calmed down.

The young man slowly nods, the cry has almost disappeared and his body is not shaking anymore. Rikka decides to gradually pull back from the hug, looking at Dai’s face breaks his heart. The eyes are red and still tearful, his face has blood stains from the moment in which Dai tried to cover his face to hide from him, Even Dai’s night clothes are stained with some blood. The pink haired tries to act as calm as he can, carefully he cleans some of the tears with his hand and smiles at Dai. The king has started to realized that he is not only taking care of Dai because he felt that it was his responsibility… No, he has started to accept that he feels more for this naïve and defenseless boy he met. He feels as if his destiny has been to meet Dai, he is sure that they were meant to find each other in this world. Almost unconsciously, Rikka starts getting closer to Dai, leaning towards him looking to join their lips.

“My king, what happened?”

Before Rikka could complete his act, Hajime has gotten into the room. The pink haired gets startled and moves away from Dai.

“Dai… I mean our guest, his name is Dai by the way,” Rikka starts explaining, “He did not feel well, I guess he was having a nightmare and fell…”

Dai blushes and lowers his head, he was so closed of being kissed by Rikka… However, he knows that maybe this was not the best moment.

“I see, is he hurt?” Hajime asks and Rikka nods, “Then, I’ll go for the bandages and everything to clean him up.”

“Thank you, Hajime, I’ll stay here with him.”

Having said that, Rikka stands up and offers his hand to Dai to help him up as well and making him take a seat on the bed. Consequently, the king pushes away the crystals with his foot; awkwardly the pink haired sits next to Dai and takes his hand. The light blue haired boy feels as his heart starts speeding up and looks at Rikka.

“If you feel better tomorrow, we might go out as well… but only if you want,” Rikka proposes, maybe if Dai has on his mind something positive he will not have another panic attack.

The boy nods, blushing even more, and lowers his head. Nevertheless, Rikka can see the shy smile that has formed on his lips. Before Rikka could keep talking about possible plans, Hajime gets in the room again. Quickly, he starts cleaning the wounds that Dai has gotten on his hands and the few ones on his legs. Then, cautiously, the dark-haired man puts on the bandages and makes sure that all the wounds have been treated correctly.

“Well, I guess we are done,” Hajime expresses when he has checked for the second time Dai’s hands and legs.

“Thank you, Hajime,” Rikka replies and then he smiles at Dai.

“Now, my king, I think it’s time to leave and allow our guess to sleep.”

The pink haired looks at Hajime, of course his loyal assistant will try to come and make him have some common sense. Nevertheless, this time Rikka will not allow Hajime to win this tiny battle.

“I will actually like to stay until making sure that Dai will be able to sleep.”

“My lord…”

“Please Hajime, I will call you in case that we need something,” having said this, Rikka hopes that the dark-haired man understands and gets to leave them alone.

“Just know that you will not be able to slack on your work tomorrow morning,” knowing that he has been defeated, Hajime leaves the room, but making sure that Rikka knows that he will have to make up for this tiny win.

“I won’t, good night Hajime.”

The man leaves the room with no further words. Then, Rikka looks back at Dai with a gentle smile.

“Time to sleep, as I said I will be by your side until you get to peacefully sleep.”

The young man blushes, and following Rikka’s instructions he gets in bed and under the blankets. The light blue haired man lies down and sees as Rikka copies his action. Dai is not sure on what to feel, things have been happening too fast, but at the end he knows that he is still in love with Rikka.

“Sleep, I will take care of you.”

The pink haired smiles at him, and Dai nods. Closing his eyes, he is scared for a moment of seeing again those memories. Nevertheless, when he perceives Rikka’s hands caressing his hair, he feels his mind and soul in peace. Finally, he is able to forget about the past for a moment and sleep.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, let's hope that I can come back with a new chapter on September 27th.... XD


	9. Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every secret has to stop being a secret at some moment and that is why Shiki demands to their father to tell the truth about their uncle Shun.  
> On the other hand, Rikka starts to feel like opening himself to Dai a little more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, tradition, tradition, I always need to update fics that are on progress on this day...  
> TBH I thought that it was going to be an awful day, but I was so wrong, there is no way that a day can be awful when I have such a wonderful friends in the Tsuki fandom, thanks to all of you who has made my day so bright, beautiful and full of love, I love you all.

**Chapter 9: Confessions**

Dai has been peacefully sleeping until the moment that, again, the ray of lights gets through the window. Since he is still feeling tired; he snuggles towards what he thinks is another pillow, but quickly he realizes that is actually someone. Then, he remembers, Rikka told him that he would stay by his side making sure that he could sleep. Therefore, Dai slightly opens one of his eyes to verify if Rikka is next to him; of course, once he has verified this, his heart starts beating faster. Now, he does not know if he should move, he has just noticed that Rikka is still wrapping him with his arms and the king seems to still be deeply asleep. The light blue haired man looks up and sees Rikka’s sleepy face, the young man cannot avoid the blush on his face. He wishes to move closer to his face, to see more of this side of Rikka, but at the same time he does not want to wake him up. Then, Dai tries to cuddle closer to the king, to feel his heart beat and his warmness. Nevertheless, the door to his room gets opened and he immediately stops all his movements.

“My king, you overslept, time to get back to work,” Hajime is the person who has gotten into the room and requests the pink haired to wake up.

“I thought I told you that I would not slack off today, so there was no need to come for me, plus I know it’s not that late” Rikka replies and since Hajime keeps staring at him he continues, “besides, you are going to wake him up,” the king adds pointing at Dai.

“I must say, he is already awake, your majesty,” Hajime adds.

Then Rikka looks down to where Dai is cuddling closed to him and sees the two light blue orbs looking at him. Immediately, Dai’s face is covered by a red blush that quickly spreads to his ears as well. The pink haired is surprised to realize that in fact the young man is awake, but when he notices the blush, Rikka smiles at him trying to make him feel comfortable again. Nevertheless, Dai quickly moves apart and sits on the bed.

“Now, since both of you are really awake, I am going to request the breakfast to be ready, please try to be at the dining room in less than twenty minutes.”

“Aren’t you a little demanding today?” Rikka teases looking at Hajime with a smirk on his face.

The dark-haired man does not even reply to that. Instead, he turns around and leaves the door opened hoping that with that Rikka understands that he cannot stay in bed anymore. The pink haired sighs, Hajime is definitely the kind of person who knows how to be pushy and get what he needs. Then, the king looks back at Dai and smiles at him.

“Good morning, I am sorry, I guess I fell sleep before I could return to my room.”

Dai tries to indicate that it is fine and that he does need to worry about it. Obviously, the poor young man is madly blushing and his attempts to keep his composure are practically not effective.

“Good to know that is alright, then I’ll ask Kensuke or Koki to come and help you, please do not stand up yet since there might be glasses still around, ok?”

Rikka expresses and Dai nods; after that, the king stands up and before leaving the room, he reminds to Dai that after he can complete all his job they are going out again. Excitedly, the light blue haired man nods and stays in bed, waiting for either Kensuke or Koki to come. The boy looks at the window, he can see that he has little time to make Rikka fall in love with him so he does not have to become the White Wizard’ slave. Two days, he thinks as he keeps looking the sky through the window. Nevertheless, his thoughts are cut off when Kensuke comes in, the boy is cheerful as usual, which is something that Dai really likes.

“Good morning! I was told that your name is Dai, right?” Kensuke asks to verify and Dai nods happily, “Great! It’s good to know your name for once, I’m gonna clean this first, and then you can go to take a bath, ok?”

Again, Dai nods and waits patiently until Kensuke indicates him that he can get off of the bed. The dark-haired man then helps the taller boy to get to the bathroom one more time. The usual routine he has been having since the day he got to the palace is something that he is already adapting and learning by heart. Just with some minor differences, Kensuke changing his bandages and then he does not look at the paintings on the wall.

“The king had to go with Hajime to the town to solve some issues, but he said he would be back to take you out again,” Koki explains when they get to the dining room and Rikka is nowhere to be seen.

“But, he asked the twins to be with you today during breakfast so you wouldn’t feel alone,” Kensuke adds, “you two better behave and be nice with our guess!”

“Hey! We are always good boys!” Ichiru replies pouting since he is too offended for the comment.

“Yes, yes, anyways, have breakfast all together and then maybe you can go and have a walk around the garden while the king comes back.”

Dai and the twins nod; truth to be told, the room goes immediately quiet when Kensuke and Koki leaves. Apparently, Ichiru, who is always in the mood to talk, feels somehow intimidated by Dai; and the young man does not know how to make the little boy trust him. After their breakfast, Issei rapidly takes Ichiru’s hands and makes him go with him to the place where they have their sketchbooks and pencils all over the floor. Since they are supposed to accompany Dai until the king returns, Ichiru also takes Dai’s hand and drags the young man with them. The oldest brother starts drawing a ship on the paper and shows it to his twin who looks confused at the drawing.

“You want to go to the ocean?” Ichiru asks, but Issei replies with a negative.

Then, the older twin starts drawing again, this time a ship that is sinking on the ocean. At that Ichiru asks him if he wants to express something related to the accident from the other day. The smile on his twin’s face makes Ichiru happy as well, he is understanding the message he wants to convey. Consequently, once that Ichiru has talked about the accident, Issei points at Dai; the young man immediately gets scared.

“Why Dai? He was not there,” Ichiru replies when his brother does not stop pointing at Dai.

Issei gets really angry when his brother says that, is Ichiru calling him a liar? Because he is not. The boy keeps pointing at Dai and then at Dai’s legs to then cross his arms in forming a “x”.

“Wait, wait, are you saying he does not have legs?”

Issei looks confused, he wants to say yes, but he knows that his brother will not understand what he is really trying to express. In the meantime, Dai is starting to seriously freak out, what if they get to know that he is actually a merman. Then, after a while Issei starts drawing again, this time he has drawn a merman. It’s in that moment that Dai believes that he would pass out one more time. However, Ichiru keeps without understanding what his brother is trying to say and thankfully, someone comes into that room, it’s Hajime.

“Young Dai, the king is waiting outside for you, please come with me,” the dark-haired man says and then looks back at the twins, “in your case, please wait for your tutor for today’s class, alright?”

“Yes, but, Hajime… Issei is trying to tell me something and I don’t understand him…” Ichiru expresses with sadness.

“I will be back in less than five minutes to help you, ok?”

“Thank you, Hajime,” the younger twin expresses while his brother is still pouting, angry that Ichiru could not get the message.

Dai stands up and starts following Hajime, when he is about to leave the room, he looks back at the twins. Ichiru is still looking at the drawings and Issei gets to look at Dai right in the eyes, the older twin seems to be accusing him for hiding the truth. The young man is conflicted with that, he knows that the kid is hurt and probably no one would believe him, but he still cannot say the truth. It would not be possible for Rikka to love him if he finds out that he is a merman, right? Feeling frustrated for not being able to help Issei, Dai gives an apologetical smile to the kid, but the boy turns around pouting. Trying not to feel so hurt due to the twin’s action, Dai is guided by Hajime to the castle’s gates where Rikka is waiting for him on a carriage.

“Thank you, Hajime,” the king says once they are next to the carriage, “and just to verify, I am allowed to leave, right?”

“Yes, my king, but you have to be back before the celebrations start.”

“Not a problem, come on,” Rikka replies and helps Dai to get on the carriage.

When he has made sure that Dai is comfortable and ready to go, he indicates the horses to move. It is the first time that Dai is on a carriage and he feels curious about how it works, he keeps looking at the horse, the reins, and he even bends down to look at the wheels. This last action, of course, makes Rikka more than worried and he almost let go of the reins. Fortunately, nothing bad happens to Dai and the boy comes back to properly sit. The light blue haired boy is even smiling since he is discovering new things about the human world and how some things work. Even if Rikka does not really understand what is so exciting for the boy, he smiles back, it’s more than good to see that Dai seems to be doing better today. After a while, they reach a place that is a bit away from the castle, being this an intermediate point between the town and the woods. Rikka stops the carriage and asks Dai to get off; then he takes a basket that was in the back part of the carriage. After that, the pink haired puts a blanket on the ground for them to sit and finally he reveals the content of the basket, a delicious lunch and some desserts that have turned to be Dai’s favorite. Without a second thought, the king and the young boy start enjoying the food.  

“Are you feeling better today?” the king questions to the taller man and he nods with a tiny smile on his face, “I’m happy to know that, I was really worried for you.”

At that expression, Dai lowers his head. The last thing he wants to do is worrying Rikka. However, what happened yesterday was beyond his control and he simply could not fight against the past. At least, not in that moment. When the pink haired notices the troublesome expression on Dai’s face, he knows it is time to change the topic of conversation and see if he can make things even better for the young man.

“Has anyone told you about our festival?” Rikka asks and Dai shakes his head in a negative reply, “Today we start the preparations for the ‘Dark Moon Festival,’ it was supposed that I should be engage for this year’s festival… but I didn’t find anyone that I could love.”

Dai’s heart skips a beat, is he being rejected? Although, if he thinks about it, he has not been able to express his emotions to the king, but the king’s phrase has made him doubt and feel more insecure.

“Well… I thought I was not going to be able to find someone before the ceremony, but I think I just did.”

Dai feels his heart beat going faster faster, he wants to look at Rikka, he wants to know if the king is talking about him. If that is the case, he can try to do something to confess his feelings; and in that way, he would be able to be free from the Wizard’s contract. Nevertheless, and even if the day has been sunny, it suddenly starts to strongly rain. Since it seems like the rain will not stop for a while, Rikka hurries to pick up the stuff and then he asks Dai to get on the carriage again. Hurriedly, they return to the castle and as if nature was against them, the weather gets all clear once that they have gotten there.

“I could say that for some reason nature wanted us back before time,” Rikka jokes trying to wring out his hair.

“My lord,” Hajime calls him out with a disapproval look, “Please, come inside and get ready for the festival, you too young man.”

Nevertheless, Dai is looking at the ocean that can be seen from the castle’s entrance. He really wants to go today and see if his brothers are there. At that, Hajime who has been talking with the twins and is starting to have some suspicious over Dai sighs.

“Do you want to go again to the ocean?” the dark-haired man asks and Dai shyly nods, “Come and get change and then you can go.”

“Eh? Hajime, what is that kindness all of a sudden? Are you willing to break the protocol for today?” the king teases him with joy by seeing that the man who is always too serious and in the extreme need of accomplishes routines seems to be a bit flexible today.

“A little bit,” the man replies to the question and gets closer to the king, “besides, there is something we need to talk about our guess,” the man whispers into Rikka’s ears.

The pink haired man furrows his brows, now what is exactly Hajime thinking. Nonetheless, there is no time for questions, Hajime has already called Kensuke and Koki to get some extra help for the king and Dai. After getting into some dry clothes, the light blue haired man is ready to leave. He goes and indicates to Rikka and Hajime that he will be leaving. At that, the king tells him to come back in two hours, or again, Hajime will go and pick him up. The young man nods and leaves the castle. Leaving Rikka and Hajime alone to start their conversation.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°°**°*°*°*°

It’s been three days since the last time that the king saw his youngest son. All merpeople have been required to look for the young merboy; and of course, to report any valuable information they can get about the missing prince. So far, no one has been able to give a positive result to the king who is starting to feel distressed; the guilty from his last actions towards his youngest son hunting him at every moment. Today, he has requested his sons to reunite with him in a desperate attempt to calm that awful feeling.

“Father?” Shu is the one who calls before entering the room.

“Come inside, is everyone present?” the king asks seeing how his sons gets into his private room.

“All except Dai,” Shiki replies, since the day that they had that discussion, Shiki has taken every chance to remind his father of the mistake he made.

Shu and Tsubasa look at Shiki with murderous eyes, they are the only ones who can get Shiki to behave as much as possible in these occasions. The king sighs, he actually accepts the fact that Shiki has all the right to remind him of the absence of his son. Eichi then tries to restart the conversation, hoping that there are not going to be more uncomfortable moments between the family members.

“You have been staying in the castle, right, my sons?” the king continues, he does not want to risk any of his sons.

Since the moment that Dai disappeared, the idea of humans getting in the ocean and murdering his youngest son has been around his mind. His sons nod, even Shiki and Tsubasa replies in that way, since they know that their brothers are going to covered them, as every single day in which they have left the castle.

“Good, I do not want any of you to leave the castle until we can find Dai,” their father adds and starts swimming towards their sons, “Shiki, Tsubasa, any idea of where Dai can be?”

Shiki remains silence, he is still angry with his father, and so he does not want to help him in the slightest way. Therefore, Tsubasa knows that he is charge of actually answering the question, the blond merman sighs and then speaks.

“Just the usual places he used to visit father, the wreckage zone and the part where the whirlpools form,” Tsubasa replies, they have been forced to confess this information before, but still he and Shiki were not saying other details to keep as much as possible as a secret.

“I see.”

The king rubs his temples, all of his guards have already traced all over those zones, even risking some of them to go closed to the surface, with no results. The six boys stay in silence looking at his father’s worried expression. In such a melancholic position for his father, the purple haired merman knows that what he is about to do may not be the best, but he needs all of his brothers to be there. Shiki thinks that if he has his brothers as his witness, his father would be forced to say the truth to them.

“Father,” Shiki calls out and his brothers look at him with fear on his eyes.

They already know that in this kind of circumstances, his oldest brother will not be generous nor merciful with whatever he will say to his father. At that moment, even Tsubasa gets closer to Shiki and holds his hand trying to stop him from whatever that he has on his mind. Nevertheless, Shiki does not even look at him, he has made his mind and he must know the truth.

“Do you want to ask something, Shiki?”

“Why did you exile uncle Shu?”

All faces are looking at the oldest son. Tsubasa and Shu already knew that the purple haired merman would eventually ask this to his father. Nevertheless, they never expect it to be right there and with all the brothers in the same room. The king stares at Shiki in disbelief. He has known that Shiki is the one with the sharpest tongue among all of his sons, and the less scared to speak up when needed. However, the king would have never expected to be confronted by his son in this situation.

“Sons, leave, I will stay with Shiki.”

“Wait! I don’t want them to leave, I want them to know the truth as well,” Shiki immediately expresses and does not allow his brothers to leave, “No more secrets, father, this family will fall apart if we keep going like this!”

His father stays there, observing him in complete silent and astonishment. The king of the ocean has always known that there would come a day in which he will have to confess everything to their sons.

“Shiki is right, father,” Shu suddenly says hoping that his words can encourage the rest of the brothers.

“16 years have been a long time, father; we deserve to know the truth,” Mamoru also speaks up and joins Shiki and Shu.

“We were not allowed to go to that last meeting you had with uncle Shun, why?”

The questions keep coming, the three older sons are decided to not give a minor opportunity to their father to avoid the issue.

“We need to know,” Tsubasa says taking Eichi and Ryota’s hands, “I know that if Dai would be here, he would also like to know what happened in the past.”

The blond merman has always known how to give the final touch to get his father to say or give them what they want. The king turns around and sits on his throne, he sighs and knows that there is no escape, after all this time he will have to explain everything to their sons.

“First of all, I want you to know that I have regretted my decision many times, but…I was hurt at that moment, the anger and the sadness for losing my beloved queen did not allow me to think clearly.”

The king expresses, all of his sons surround him and do not take their eyes off of him. For an instant, the king seems to have allowed himself to go into the past, his image is the vivid memory from those dark days that the Tsukino Empire lived. Then, the king sighs, and continues the story.

“I sent Shun to the human world, in the hope that we could help me revenge your mother, I was blind by my anger,” the old man expresses, “Those three weeks were terrible, I was desperate to know about their weakness, about ways in which I could destroy them all…”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Three weeks have passed since Shun was sent to the human world. The king is already waiting with his three older sons the arrival of the White Wizard. At the moment when a white light can be seen, the king stops the whirlpools allowing Shun to come into the ocean. The three young boys smile at their uncle and are excited to share time with him. Nevertheless, Shun’s face is clearly showing some kind of concern which immediately takes away the happiness away from the boys.

“Uncle Shun…” Mamoru whispers when he perceives that the atmosphere is not the happy one that he was expecting.

“Hi boys, I’m happy to see you again!” the white-haired merman says.

“Did something happen, uncle?” Shiki questions now unable to hide his worry.

“For now, I think it would be better if all of you go with your younger brothers, ok? Mikoto, I mean, our king and I have a lot to talk about.”

The wizard expresses and looks at the king, asking him with his eyes to order to the boys to go to their room with the other princes. With no hesitation, the ocean’s king requests to his sons to leave with the guards so he can have a word with Shun. Silently, the two of them swim to the royal court and as soon as the doors are closed, a long and uncomfortable talk begins.

“My lord, I need you to listen to me,” Shun starts speaking, “I was sent with the purpose of learning about humans’ weakness; however, I have learnt that we cannot generalize and believe that all humans are evil.”

The phrase immediately makes the king’s anger emerge; something that Shun was prepared for.

“What do you mean? Do you want me to believe that those bastards have feelings? That those awful creatures deserve respect and mercy?”

Mikoto screams out loud, he has waited for so long to prepare for his revenge, to have his army ready and attack. Nonetheless, now Shun comes here with no useful information, he presents to him and practically asks for compassion towards that species.

“My king, please…I can assure you not all humans are killers…I learnt, no I actually was able to perceive their love, their kindness, we just…”

“SHUT UP NOW, YOU TRAITOR!” Mikoto yells and Shun moves back.

Then, for a couple of seconds everything goes silence, the king is completely agitated, but Shun does not want to lose this argument. The white-haired merman tries once again to restart the conversation and tries to make the king listen to his explanation.

“I went to the human world, I learnt the reason why the humans attacked us, I was able to see all their different faces, all their needs.”

Shun talks and since he sees that the king is not replying back he takes the chance to continue.

“The human king… he is the one who murdered my sister, I met him.”

Shun mentions and Mikoto looks back at him, the rage more than evident on his eyes. However, Shun does not allow the merman king to speak again,

“The human king has a wife and only one son… both of them were terrible sick while the kingdom was facing a time full of war and invasions,” the white-haired man explains, “because of that, the king was blinded by the legend that was told about us, or well about my dear sister.”

Shun then proceeds to tell the legend that the human kind uses to narrate about the kingdom that is hidden in the ocean. ‘The person who gets to own the silver scales and silver hair of the beautiful mermaid queen, that was blessed by the moon, will be granted with power and strength forever.’ The white-haired merman explains that the human king did not hesitate when he knew about it and took all his forces and searched in the ocean for the queen.

“As we know, the human king found her, and while I was there I met his wife and his son…”

“I don’t want you to speak any further,” the king interrupts Shun, and takes the trident that his beloved wife gave him to provide him with power.

“My king please, listen to me, humans are kind, humans can love as we do,” Shun’s words do not have any effect, the king does not stop his actions, “I love a human my king, I love a person and thanks to him I know that…”

“SILENCE!”

With no further hesitation the king points with his trident at Shun and curses him. The white-haired merman will never be able to invoke his magic for himself; this forbidden him of becoming a human again. Not satisfy with this, the king also has forced  Shun to leave the Tsukino Empire immediately. Since the commotion has been loud enough, the three oldest children get to the room and obviously they do not understand what is going on. Shortly after, Eichi and Tsubasa get there as well carrying Ryota and Dai.

“Leave now!” the king screams his rage not going away.

“Remember my words, my king,” Shun whispers, “In the darkest moment I will make this family fall, I will take advantage of your biggest weakness and rage to tear you apart, I curse you all!”

After those words were said, the White Wizard left the castle and none of the princes were allowed to ask what had happened in that moment.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The king finishes the story, the pain of the memories being evident in his eyes. On the other hand, all the princes are just staring in silence to the truth that was hidden from them for so long. Their uncle had forgiven the humans because he fell in love with one, none of them knew how to react to that confession. However, before anything could be said, Shiki turns around and leaves the room.

“Shiki! Come back!” the king calls for his son, but with no avail, the oldest has come to know the truth that has broken his heart even more.

“I am sorry, father,” Tsubasa quickly expresses and goes after Shiki.

The king is unable to fight against the will of his sons. He simply knows that he does not have the authority to force them to come back.

“Father…” Shu calls him out and gathering enough courage he proceeds to talk, “would you be willing to accept uncle Shun back? Would you be able to forgive the humans?” Shu asks, he knows he is risking too much with his questions, but he just needs to know if Shiki is completely right about their father.

“I cannot…” the man replies with teary eyes, the pain from the past will never stop hunting him.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Outside the castle and going away as fast as possible from that place, Shiki is desperately swimming, he does not even know where to go or what do. In moments like this, he really hates to be right, he hates that his suspicious were correct. Their uncle really had a past experience related to humans, and even worst… it’s the same scenario that Dai is facing right now.

“Shiki!!! Please, Shiki stop!!!” Tsubasa calls him out, but with no avail, knowing that his significant other will not easily stop, Tsubasa extends his arms and grabs Shiki by his flipper, “I’m calling you out, darling! Stop!”

It is not as if Shiki wanted to stop, but he knows that this is one of those times in which he cannot take his anger on Tsubasa. The purple haired merman stops swimming and looks back; the view breaks Tsubasa’s heart instantly. The older merman is devastated it can be seen all over his face, his usual composure is lost and he cannot keep going on. The thought that he has failed to his youngest brother keeps going around in his mind, torturing him and making him weak by every passing minute.

“Shiki… we just have to follow our plan, that’s it…” the blond merman said and caresses Shiki’s face, “We will always be together, I will be forever with you, darling.”

Surprisingly to Tsubasa, Shiki throws himself at him and hug him. It has been a lot to hold, but he is no longer able to keep moving forward without letting out part of his frustration, and in general, his real feelings. The blond merman kindly smiles and tightly hugs the older prince.

“Why? Why Dai?” Shiki questions and that breaks Tsubasa’s heart.

“I wish… I wish I could know the reason, but I don’t… However, he has us, we will protect him and help him as much as we can,” Tsubasa replies with a smile on his face, “plus, aren’t we being a bit too negative over here? I’m sure that that human king is falling so bad for Dai that uncle Shun will not be able to claim his revenge!”

Tsubasa expresses hoping that at least his tone of voice has been confident enough, because he also needs to believe in his own words. At least, the blond merman feels as Shiki relaxes a bit on his arms, maybe they just really need to be positive.

“Dai is going to get that human in love with him, right?” Shiki questions still having his head leaning on Tsubasa’ shoulder, “He will find a way to confess his feelings… right?”

“I’m sure he will, now, what do you say if we go to the surface, Lupus must be waiting for us to go, plus we did not have the chance to see him yesterday.”

“Yes, let’s go, honey,” the oldest prince replies and kisses Tsubasa’s cheek.

The sun is about to set taking away one more day from the time limit that the White Wizard gave to Dai. However, Shiki and Tsubasa have decided to believe in their little brother until the end. Unfortunately, and unknown to them, the White Wizard has more than one way to get his revenge.

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to feel that this fic is about to end.... maybe three more chapters.... don't know yet, but I know it's been hella fun to write it!!


	10. A Path to Follow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dai is finally able to meet up with his brothers again, in the meantime Hajime tells Rikka what he thinks is Dai's real origins, the past story from both kingdoms is coming back to life little by little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY RIKKA!!!!
> 
> Tho this is not a really happy chapter LOL... nor romantic.... but I wanted to update today... it's already the 16th in Japan so....
> 
> Happy birthday to the cutest pink boy!

**Chapter 10: A Path to Follow**

The sun is about to set while Dai walks to the beach. He is thankful that finally his legs are able to move a bit faster and that he can walk without help. Although, the pain is still there, piercing and intense as in the first day. Being honest, he just has gotten used to pretend that he is fine to the point that he has actually started to believed it. As the light blue haired boy gets closer to the shore, he is able to identify his brothers and smiles. Even if his fears have calmed down a bit more, Dai knows that meeting with his brothers was something that he was terribly missing.

Just when the boy is about to get in the water, he remembers that Kensuke and Koki advised him to not ruin his clothes since he needs to get to the festival after this. Apparently, most of the people in the castle already know that Dai has the habit of just getting in the water with his clothes on. The boy looks frustrated, how can he tell that to his brothers? How can he ask them to come closer? Is it alright if they are the ones getting closer? What if someone comes?

“He seems troubled,” Tsubasa mentions and looks around, “maybe we should get closer to him, I mean no one seems to be around.”

The blond proposes, but Shiki seems hesitant. The older brother is not only fearing about running into humans, he is also thinking if Dai is ready to know everything they have found out. Even thought he has been the one insisting that all of them must know the truth, Shiki is now uncertain of speaking the truth to his little brother. How is he going to react? Is this going to cause him more frustrations?

“Shiki?”

“Yes, sorry; it seems like the humans are not around…” he replies and before they start going to the shore he asks Lupus to stay there and in case of an emergency to go for Fides and Ala.

“Why do you have to be so paranoid?” Tsubasa comments rolling his eyes, but he knows his words have truly hurt Shiki, “Darling, I’m…”

“If I would have been like this all the time, probably Dai wouldn’t be a human now, maybe he would be with us under the sea.”

No more words are said until they get to the shore. When Dai sees that his brothers have come, he smiles even more and get closer to them. Maybe if it is just his knees getting drenched with water, Kensuke and Koki will not get angry at him. However, it was going to be impossible to keep it at that point, he is unable to hold himself and so he hugs Tsubasa and Shiki. Both mermen look scared at Dai, since the boy is being so opened with his emotions, is something wrong? Did something happen to him? Did Rikka hurt him in the castle? Their suspicious only get worse when they notice that there are tears rolling down Dai’s cheeks.

“Dai… what happened? Was it that human?”

The youngest is confused on how to explain things. Then, he signs with his finger a number one and nods. Immediately, Shiki’s anger is evident on his face. Even more, Dai is sure that if Shiki could get to Rikka right now, his oldest brother will punch his dearest king without a doubt. Therefore, hurriedly Dai makes another sign to ask them to wait and quickly signs a number two to then shake his head and points at them.

“Us???” Tsubasa asks alarmed, “Did we hurt you?”

Again, the youngest shakes his head and hugs them again. The action makes things easier for them, Dai has missed them. Although, it is evident than the younger will not be able to explain the reason why Rikka made him feel bad or about to cry. Nevertheless, now that they know more about their kingdom history and how it relates with Rikka’s realm, they might have an idea, something that they need to verify before proceeding with the conversation.

“Dai, we saw you yesterday… but we couldn’t come, you were with the king at the beach,” the purple merman speaks and pauses for a moment, “you had me worry, your expression while talking with that human…” Shiki stops talking when he sees that Dai has lowered his head, he now has verified what could have possibly happened.

“It’s ok, it’s ok, you have a pretty smiling face today, I haven’t seen you like this in a while, I’m happy for you,” the blond merman quickly says and that makes Dai remember what happened that day.

The boy points to the castle, which helps Shiki and Tsubasa to understand that he is talking about Rikka. Nevertheless, things get again complicated when the boy points at them, it takes them at least ten guesses to get to the word Dai is trying to make them say. A date, Tsubasa gets excited, so finally Dai and Rikka have gone on a date, that means that his little brother can be closer to accomplish his goal. When Dai recalls what Rikka told him about having found someone, the boy starts madly blushing and tries to hide his face.

“Apparently, things are going better than expected,” Tsubasa teases him poking his face.

“Don’t joke with him, Tsubasa,” Shiki expresses, but even he is grinning and looking at Dai in the eyes in a mischievous way.

Honestly, the two mermen are feeling that there might be a chance, they will not have to tell Dai that they made a deal with the White Wizard, not yet. Nevertheless, what really matters is to tell about the White Wizard’s real origin to his little brother. Thus, after things have calmed down a bit, Shiki looks back at Tsubasa, they have made the agreement of telling the truth and so the oldest brother starts speaking.

“Dai, last time when we saw you… I wanted to tell you about the White Wizard, remember?”

At the question Dai nods and looks back at Tsubasa since at that time his blond brother did not seem happy about it. Nonetheless, this time Tsubasa nods and shows him a smile. Then, Dai looks back at Shiki, asking him to continue with what he has to say.

“Again, you were practically a baby, and to tell the truth, you were the one who blocked a lot of memories.”

At that, Dai knows it is the truth. After what he experienced by looking at the paintings and listening to Rikka’ story, he has verified that he did purposely forgot a lot of stuff from his past. So, the light blue haired man nods again and he begs Shiki to proceed with the story.

“One of the people you forgot was the White Wizard, he used to live with us… he actually is mother’s brother,” Shiki reveals.

“He is our uncle.” 

Dai looks at them confused, their mother had a brother? An uncle? How wouldn’t he be able to remember that? The light blue haired man shrugs and signs as best as he can that he does not believe it. He would have remembered his uncle, he remembers every person in his family; his father and brothers were never forgotten by him. Probably, he has been more distant from his father and his other four brothers, bur still… he just could not believe it.

“Today… today I demanded father to tell us the truth about uncle Shun, that is his name,” Shiki sighs, he is not sure if he should keep going, but truth to be told, he needs Dai to be prepared for anything.

“Before… before Shiki can continue, you have to know that what happened to mother was something that truly marked father in a very bad way.”

Tsubasa interrupts, he knows that defending his father is not acceptable. However, the blond is conscious that losing the person you love the most in the world must be a living hell. Whenever he thinks about losing Shiki, his heart aches in such an intense way, that he cannot even imagine just how much their father suffered, and keeps suffering. Therefore, he needs to give their brothers a bit of conscience in this issue.

“Yes, he was devastated… maybe… maybe because of that he was never able to become closer to you… I’m sorry,” Shiki immediately says, mentally cursing himself.

Nonetheless, Dai does not take it as something bad; he has always known that his father has been always unable to look at him. Even though Dai never understood the reason why, he accepted it; after all, he sheltered himself in Shiki and Tsubasa during those first years after losing their mother. Besides, being with his two brothers was more than enough for him, they gave him everything he needed. The light blue haired boy pats Shiki’ shoulder and smiles at him, that does not matter, he has become a strong adult thanks to them.

“I’m sorry,” the purple haired man whispers again, “anyways… probably you do not remember uncle Shun because after what happened he was sent by father to the human world.”

At that point, Shiki starts telling the story they just heard that afternoon. Their uncle becoming a human and falling in love with someone from the human world. At each word, Dai’s heart aches a bit more every time, he is living the same. He will be doomed to live in the same way if he cannot confess to Rikka. His expression turns to be gloomy and full of fear, now his mind is surrounded by doubts.

“Dai, please, listen to me,” Tsubasa calls him out when Shiki has stopped talking, “Our uncle is an idiot, there’s no doubt about it, but now you just let us know you had a date with Rikka, right?”

The boy nods, but still his eyes are lost and his mind keeps making scary ideas of what could possibly go wrong.

“Then,” the blond expresses and with some effort he goes to grabs Dai by his shirt, “don’t be scared, you are going to make it, you are going to confess to Rikka and will let with nothing to our uncle.”

Dai looks at his brother, Tsubasa has always been so optimistic and full of enthusiasm, right now he could use a little bit of that energy. Nevertheless, Dai knows he is not like that, during his life he has only been able to feel empowered when he was freely swimming. Now, he does not even have that. Looking at how things are going, Shiki sighs, he definitely didn’t want to play this, but maybe Dai needs a bigger motivation… even if it is not a very positive one.

“You can keep worrying, I mean after all we did go with the White Wizard and make a new deal.”

The youngest brother looks scared at Shiki and Tsubasa is practically killing him with his eyes.

“You will be free even if you failed to confess Rikka, instead, Tsubasa and I will become the White Wizard’ slaves.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°**°*°*°*°*°*°**°*

The castle has never been so silenced before “The Dark Moon Festival,” it usually is full of singing and people talking to get ready all the preparations. However, the person who is always bringing that mood is the king himself, something that he does not seem willing to do at the moment. The reason, his conversation with Hajime.

“Are you telling me that Dai belongs to the Tsukino Empire? The kingdom that my father attacked in the past? The kingdom that by now is supposed to be just a legend?” Rikka asks for the third time, still unable to believe it.

“Rikka, I know I am jumping into very crazy conclusions over here and I know you do not like to speak about the Tsukino Empire, but…”

“But what? Hajime, tell me, there must be a reason why you have come to me with this idea, right? So, tell me now, why?”

It is not common for Rikka to yell or to express any kind of anger. All the contrary, he always tries to handle every situation as calmed and peaceful as possible, but right now he feels as his worst nightmare is coming to life. His father looked for a long time the beautiful queen who ruled the Tsukino Empire; the realm that as a kid he thought it was just a myth. Nevertheless, one day when he was only five years old, his father returned with the most real evidence that this mysterious kingdom was real. It was too vivid on his mind, the image of the queen’s dead body, still covered by the blood; nevertheless, Rikka was mesmerized by the beauty of said mermaid. The king keeps remembering that day, he shudders by every memory and the actions that were taken with the queen’s body.

“Why?” he mutters again.

Since Hajime considers that the king has calmed down a bit, he shows the drawings that Issei did. Rikka carefully looks at them, it is evident that is showing the day in which their ship sank in the middle of the ocean. However, his attention also gets caught by the one in which Issei drew someone similar to Dai… the difference being that in this picture Dai is a merman.

“Issei will never lie, my king,” Hajime whispers and lowers his head, “that day after the accident, I found you, you and I know that you must have been saved by someone, you even asked me if there was someone with you, remember?”

Rikkka’s heart starts to ache, was that the reason why he felt like knowing Dai when he saw him for the first time? However, even if he is starting to doubt about Dai, he will not give in that easily against Hajime’s persistent on the subject. Thus, the pink haired stands up, leaving the drawings that Issei did behind, he has now the strong determination of not speaking anymore about the subject. No matter what, he will not believe this until verifying it with Dai.

“Please, go and search for Dai, the festival will start soon and I want him to be there,” the king expresses and leaves the room.

On the other hand, the dark-haired man is deeply regretting what he just did, he has clearly seen that Rikka has been falling for the unknown young man. Nonetheless, after the day in which that man disappeared from his life, he has never felt the ocean as a harmless place. How long has it been? Hajime asks to himself looking at the drawings that Issei did, and even if he wants to ignore the answer, it keeps resonating in the back of his mind. Sixteen years since he saw that white-haired man for the last time. At that moment, Shun had told him that if he didn’t get the ocean’s king to believe in his word, the human kingdom would never be able to have peace. Shun had promised him that he will go back to be with him, that he will be back knowing that the peace between both kingdoms could be possible… but now, after all these years, Hajime has understood that Shun failed, not only in convincing the king, but also in accomplishing his promise.

Now, Hajime’s only concern is if he should face Dai, or wait to see what would be his next move… Is Dai the being who has come to claim revenge for the murdering of their queen? He is still not sure about it and accusing Dai or forcing him to undergo to prison would not be a smart move, not after he has seen the king’s reaction.

“Hajime…” his thoughts are interrupt by Kensuke.

“Yes, what is it?”

“The king… he is requesting you to go for Dai, but if you are not feeling well I can go for him,” the young boy replies being cautious of his words because of the way that Hajime reacted.

“No, it is fine, I will go for him,” the man quickly replies, “I need to verify some stuff with my own eyes.”

“Understand, I will let the king know that you are going then,” the other boy mentions and leaves the room.

Shortly after, Hajime finally comes back to all his senses. He takes the drawings that the little boy did and with some regrets he burns them all. The man has decided that he will not take any action, not during such an important festivity as the Dark Moon Festival. Nevertheless, he wonders if Dai would be able to go through the memories of the bloody past of the Tsukino Empire and the way the humans celebrate that victory.

*°*°*°°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

Tsubasa has been the one that has gotten things to calm down a bit. After slapping Shiki’s head and comforting Dai, the blond has gotten his brothers to calm. Of course, the tears are still threatening to come out from Dai’s eyes, and Shiki is evidently regretting his word choice.

“Look Dai, as I said, we were and we are actually worried, we want to protect you and that’s why we went with our uncle,” Tsubasa expresses patting Dai’s arm, “I know you told us not to, but… believe me when we say we are desperate for your well-being, that’s all that matters for us.”

The youngest brother shows a painful look to the blond one, why did they agree on that deal? This is his responsibility not theirs.

“When we went with our uncle, our main goal was to free you from the curse, and of course this idiot did not even think about his words,” Tsubasa complains.

“So now it’s just my fault?” Shiki speaks up and fights Tsubasa.

Before they can start bickering against each other, Dai places his hands in the middle of his two brothers, he has lowered his face and his body is shaking. The two mermen realize that this is not the time to fight. Especially since they have accepted that this has been the best decision for all the parts. Now what matters is to support Dai and make him know that they trust him and know that he will be able to get his feelings confess to Rikka.

“When I found you… after mother was killed, I promised that day that I will protect you and that has never changed, Dai,” Shiki is the one who restarts the conversation, “I am your older brother, I decided to be responsible for your well-being and I will always look for the way in which you can be happy,  not only you, I want all of us to be happy…”

The oldest expresses and is fighting to keep finding the right words, the right way to make Dai understand the reasons for his actions.

“This cycle of pain that we have been going through needs to end, and if we could end this by making some sacrifices, then that’s what we need to do, it doesn’t matter what happened, Tsubasa will be with me, and we will be happy knowing that you will be fine whatever the outcome is.”

Dai is sure that Shiki is speaking his heart out in this moment, and that is something difficult for his oldest brother. Nevertheless, Dai cannot feel happy with the new possible outcome, even if he has had a date with Rikka, even if he really perceives that Rikka has feelings for him… this is not what he wanted. Tsubasa and Shiki exchange a worry look; not only for the way that their little brother reacted; but also, because they do not have a lot of time left to keep trying to convince their brother that this is for the best. Then, Dai looks back at the sky, where the full moon is weaker by every day. Looking at the beautiful moon, he comes to accept that he knows that he needs to stop being a burden for them. It’s true, he did not murder his mother, he did not hurt her as he always thought for the distorted memories, but he was weak, he was only a baby and could not do anything to protect her. Now, it’s different, he is an adult and he can save his brothers. As well, the youngest has known that since the moment in which he fell in love with Rikka, he was going to face a lot of obstacles and would be in the need of making sacrifices.

Losing the ocean and all he loves from the ocean being the biggest sacrifice.

All of a sudden, the younger gets in the ocean, he does not care if Kensuke and Koki get mad at him. He needs to feel the water and look at the moon from the ocean.

“Dai!!!!” Tsubasa screams at him, what is he supposed to be doing.

“Just follow him!” Shiki expresses and they dive into the water following their brother.

Then, with some difficulties, Dai let himself to float on the water, their brothers and Lupus quickly coming next to him and helping him to keep the balance. However, Dai keeps trying to break apart from them, hoping that in this way they can understand that he wants to keep moving forward without their help. Hoping that he can find for real the strength he needs; and of course, the right way to confess to Rikka. Consequently, after repeating the same action several times, pulling away from his brothers and the dolphin until finally getting to float by himself, he smiles. There will be a way, he will be able to keep their brothers saved, and somehow, he will be able to stay with Rikka. Dai smiles at the moon and then he stands up again to look at his brothers.

“Go for it,” Shiki says, “I know you are an adult now, but we will be here if you need us and you know that, right?”

The oldest has understood the meaning of the actions Dai was trying to get by himself and he also smiles at his little brother.

“We… probably we still see you as the tiny merboy you were and we have always tried to protect you from everything,” Tsubasa says and stops for a moment since his voice breaks a bit, “maybe, we just didn’t realize that you are not a baby anymore, but… the need to protect you is still there.”

Dai nods, he understands why his brothers act this way, but at least he has also let them know that he needs to do as much as possible alone. Then, reality hits him when he gets to see a silhouette getting closer to the beach, Hajime. One more time, he has taken more time than the one he actually has to be here. Therefore, he quickly hugs his brothers and shows them that Hajime is coming so they know they also need to leave.

“No matter what, we will be here tomorrow, even if you cannot come, we will be here,” Shiki says knowing that the time is running out.

“We wish you the best of lucks, little brother,” Tsubasa adds and with nostalgic eyes they look at Dai before diving into the water.

The light blue haired boy nods and he quickly hugs Lupus one last time before starting to walk to the shore. This might be one of the last times he is able to enjoy the ocean, one of the last times he can hug his brothers. Dai feels as his heart aches by those thoughts, but he is completely sure, now more than ever, that he wants to be with Rikka. Once he gets to be out of the water, the boy is not sure about what Hajime’s expression is showing, but Dai is certain that something is not alright with the older man.

It takes a while for Hajime to react, the dark-haired man can swear that for a moment he saw someone else walking by Dai’ side. Nevertheless, he quickly convinces himself that it must have been his imagination and tries to speak with Dai as natural as possible.

“So, even if Kensuke and Koki told you not to get into the water you did,” Hajime comments and Dai shows an embarrassed smile, “Let’s go to the castle to get you change, there’s still some time before the festival starts.”

Dai happily nods, maybe he has imagined that Hajime was looking weird. Then, with a slow pace both men start walking back to the palace. The dark-haired man looks back at the ocean, he feels the urge to just prove his theory.

“The Ocean’s Kingdom, have you heard the legend, young man?” unable to stop himself Hajime asks him.

Dai does not know how to react and seems to have gotten frozen.

“Some time ago, I met someone from that kingdom, a young man with white haired and a very peculiar eye color.”

The man continues, he would not have believed that it could take so long to get some kind of reaction from Dai. However, at this moment, he is no longer talking to pressure Dai. No, now he is also lost in the memories that he has placed in the deepest part of his heart.

“It is interesting, I found him one day in the beach, he didn’t seem as lost as you did and he could speak,” Hajime adds, “I still remember that first encounter, he was so eager to learn about humans.”

Dai looks from the corner of his eye to Hajime. Is he talking about the White Wizard?

“Would you like to listen the story of this man that came from the sea? After all, we need to get you ready one more time.”

Strangely enough, what Hajime started as a way to threaten Dai and get the truth out of him; ended up being a way for him to revive a past that he has locked away years ago. Dai seems to be hesitant, he is unsure on how he would react to more memories and stories from the past. Nevertheless, he certainly needs to know more about his uncle, he needs to know more about what made him act this way. Therefore, the young boy shyly nods.

“Good, I hope not to bore you with my story.”

They keep walking while the unknown White Wizard’ story starts to be revealed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the end is getting closer.... don't know, I have loved this fic a lot <3


	11. Origins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The White Wizard's past on the surface is reveal as well as someone's Origin, the Dark Moon Festival starts and more unexpected events are coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IHi... I'm actually too scared of posting this cuz I don't know if I got Hajime and Shun right... so... sorry if they don't look in character x.x

**Chapter 11: Origins**

A fifteen-year-old boy walks through the beach looking for treasures, looking for the unknown. Ever since the king from this land came as a real hero and proving a legend to be real; a legend that also saved their kingdom; Hajime has been more than determined to find his own trophy. Nevertheless, it has been a week and nothing really happens. At this point, he has started to believe that maybe the king used all the luck from every citizen to find the mermaid queen.  The boy sighs, he knows that his life is not bad, he has a place in the castle, but he does not want to be a simple boy who is part of the servitude; no, he also wants to be a hero. The dark-haired boy keeps his path, he knows he has to be back in the castle in less than an hour, but still Hajime wants to venture a little more. Once the young man was getting ready to go back, he distinguishes another boy in the middle of the sand. For a second, Hajime thinks that is better to leave the boy alone and return; however, when he notices that the other teenager is dragging himself through the sand, he freaks out and move closer to the boy.

“What the…” Hajime whispers and runs towards the boy, “Hey, hey! Are you alright?”

The dark-haired man quickly reaches the other boy and helps him to sit down. Of course, Hajime notices until then that the boy is naked; embarrassed, he looks away and tries to find something that can cover the boy.

“Oh dear…” Hajime whispers and as soon as he sees some old fabrics, probably that used to belong to a ship he runs to get them, “please, cover yourself with this.”

The boy indicates, still looking away; then, the white-haired boy takes it and looks curious at it.

“What’s the name of this thing?” the lost boy asks and touches the fabric.

Hajime does not believe the question, is he really asking the name of something so known as fabric? Incredulous the young man provides the answer and keeps staring at the white-haired teen in front of him.

“Were you in a ship wreckage?” Hajime questions, he has heard that sometimes people who have been in those kinds of accidents can get to forget almost everything.

The light color orbs look with curiosity at Hajime, why would he think something like that? The unknown teen giggles and then proceeds to answer.

“I actually come from the Kingdom that is hidden in the ocean, The Tsukino Empire,” the boy replies.

Hajime stays there completely overwhelmed trying to understand what this boy just said. The Tsukino Empire, the one that used to be leaded by the mermaid queen… wasn’t that kingdom supposed to disappear once the queen passed away? The dark-haired boy is speechless and confused on what to ask.

“Do you belong to this kingdom? Is this the kingdom the one that took my sister’s life?”

“Sister?” Hajime murmurs, even if he tries, he is still not comprehending what is happening.

“The queen of the ocean, you should know about her, right?” the boy asks him, there is so much sadness in his eyes that Hajime feels instantly guilty for the answer he has to give.

“Yes… my king… my king was the one who killed the mermaid queen,” the dark-haired boy does not even dare to look at the unknown person to the eyes.

There is a long pause in the conversation. Hajime is not sure if he should leave the boy in this place and go back to the palace; or if he should actually help the boy. Why is he here in the first place? and if he belongs to the ocean kingdom why does he have legs?

“Please, show me that humans can be kind,” the white-haired teen suddenly says.

Hajime looks confused at the other boy who is still sitting down in the sand and without covering himself with the fabric he gave him.

“Excuse me,” Hajime expresses hoping that the boy can elaborate a bit more on what he needs and he wants.

“The ocean king sent me here in the hope that I can learn ways in which we can avenge my queen,” the boy replies with all honesty, “nevertheless, I sense from you, that there are no ill intentions or violence in yourself.”

“Revenge? You mean your king wants to kill my king?” Hajime asks while he freaks out.

“Probably more people, I don’t know, my king was too hurt for the crime your king committed, I am also hurt… but…”

“But?”

“I think I like you.”

Definitely, Hajime does not understand this boy.

It takes them a long time to walk to the castle, since the white-haired boy, whose name is Shun, is not able to properly move his new legs. While walking, Shun has asked some questions to Hajime. The human, without knowing an exact reason; replies to each question without any lies. Consequently, Shun is more than sure that Hajime is the human that can actually help him to decide if the human kingdom deserves to be punished or forgiven. Nevertheless, he knows that his judgement is going to be biased; and so, he is completely sure that he would have already sing his first love song to this person if he were eighteen years old by now.

“I will ask my king permission for you to stay here… although, I don’t know if that is really convenient,” Hajime says with some hesitation once that they have gotten to the castle.

“I actually believe it will be the best, I want to know him more and see if his actions were well intended.”

“Understand,” the boy replies, he is not sure if he has gotten himself into problems or not, but he really hopes the king can allow Shun to stay.

The two boys have gotten at the back entrance of the castle, and so the dark-haired teenager asks Shun to wait outside. Once he has gotten inside the service room, he looks around, trying to avoid to be caught by Tsukishiro, which is actually not possible.

“Young boy, where have you been?” the adult questions the teenager and is ready to scold Hajime.

“I… I was walking around the beach and I was unaware of the time.”

“And?” Tsukishiro questions, Hajime knows that he cannot hide anything from the person who has taken care of him practically during all his life.

“I found a boy in the beach… he… well he is kind of weird, but I think he needs a place where to stay and so…”

“Young man, you know this is not an inn in which we welcome anyone who is in need of help, this is a castle, this is the residence of the loyal family!”

The older man sentences, a stern expression on his face. Nevertheless, Hajime will not give up on this, he has to make possible for Shun to see that humans can be kind and gentle. Thus, he is determined to win this argument and he knows he has the winning card.

“The queen gave me a place when I didn’t have anywhere to go, she would do the same for this boy!”

Tsukishiro sighs, definitely Hajime is becoming a man who knows how to defend his convictions. Rolling his eyes and hoping the king and queen will not punish him for allowing this, the man asks where the boy is. The teenager smiles, this is a good beginning to avoid any kind of tragedy to the royal family. Then, Tsukishiro and Hajime go together to help Shun and get him in to the castle, some other butlers are called in order to help and get the boy some clean clothes and a room to stay.

“I kindly request you to stay here until I can speak to the king and notify him that you are here, alright?” Tsukishiro indicates to the white-haired teen.

“Understand, I appreciate your help,” the boy replies and takes a seat on the bed.

“In the meantime, Hajime, I need you to take care of our young prince, he wants to go to the beach again,” the oldest man says.

“Again? We went to the beach yesterday!”

The man sighs, he knows that Hajime is in the right to complaint, after the king has returned triumphantly from the sea, the little prince has become obsessed with the sea. However, even if the young boy has started to have this fascination with the sea, he is not brave enough to get himself into the water. Curiously, the little prince just sits on the sand and stares at the sea as if he is waiting for something or someone to come out.

“Please Hajime, do so, we need the prince to be busy, you know the queen has not recovered yet and we are still hoping for a miracle.”

“Understand, I will just show some stuff to Shun over here and go, is it alright?”

“Fine, see you later young man.”

Tsukishiro leaves the room and allows the two teenagers to stay together. Shun keeps inspecting with his eyes every single object in the room, the bed, the blankets, the pillows, every piece of furniture that he can see there. The white-haired boy does not lose his time, he stands up and carefully touches each surface and examines the textures.

“Is it so different from your world?” Hajime interrupts him and asks.

“Not really, but it’s interesting that there’s no water around,” the boy replies with a smile, “Shouldn’t you go with your prince?”

At the question, Hajime sighs. Yes, he has to go and take care of the little prince, but he is so tired of doing the same thing every single day. Moreover, he does not like to spend time with the little boy, Rikka is usually too quiet and that creeps him out. The dark-haired teen rolls his eyes thinking about all those days in which he has been in charge of the boy, definitely the most boring moments of his life.

“You don’t like your prince?” Shun questions.

“He… well, he is… kind of a weird boy,” Hajime replies hoping that Shun does not make any other question, “the prince is just too silence… I mean I get it, most of his life he has been locked in his room since he gets sick too easily but…”

“Sick? I don’t remember seeing my nephews getting sick,” Shun mentions thinking about all the seven merboys that he has seen growing up, “Well, the youngest might be in that kind of situation, he has not spoken after…”

“Hajime!” Tsukishiro calls the boy’s name out loud. It is obvious he has taken too long.

“I’m sorry, I’ll come later, see you!”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Two weeks has passed by, Shun has learned about human culture. The way they live, how they share their time together, the different works they performed, and of course their weakness. As well, it has become a habit for him to accompany Hajime and Rikka during the day. Activity which has increased a lot lately since the queen condition has only become worst. The king and everyone in the castle could not understand how the little prince has gotten better and has practically recovered all his health while the queen did not seem to have any chance to get better. This is something that of course keeps bothering Hajime as much as any other person in the castle.

“I can’t understand, the legend said anything will be heal by drinking the mermaid queen’s blood,” the boy expresses and kicks a stone, and then he reacts, he is speaking to the mermaid queen’s brother, “I am sorry… I shouldn’t…”

“The answer is simple, Rikka was able to heal because he is an innocent child, he didn’t know the crime that was committed for him to get better, whereas the queen, she knew…”

Hajime stares in silence at Shun, is it that the real answer.

“Your queen is the one who does not want to be saved, she probably knows the suffering that this caused, to my king, to my nephews, she does not want to be saved in this way.”

“But what about the whole kingdom, we were also saved, we overcome the war, we got to defend and protect our land and…”

Shun asks Hajime to stop there. The white-haired boy sighs and he points at Rikka, the little boy has stopped looking at the sea when he listens to them arguing. Shun smiles at the boy and goes closer to him to pat his head.

“You like the ocean, don’t you?” Shun asks and Rikka nods, “Maybe at some moment, the ocean can give you the greatest gift in your life, or maybe it has already given it to you.”

“Really?” Rikka questions, it was weird for the boy to talk, especially with someone that he still considers a stranger, but for some reason at that moment he feels he can trust Shun, and so the white-haired man nods, “Hajime, did you listen to him? the ocean will give me a gift!!”

“Hey! Listen carefully, he said maybe and then he said that it might already happened!”

Rikka suddenly stands up and goes a bit closer to the shore, it is the first time he allows his feet to get drenched by the ocean’s water. The little pink haired boy looks back at Hajime and Shun and smiles at them and then he looks back at the ocean.

“Thank you!!!!” Rikka screams at the ocean. And runs back towards Hajime and Shun.

“Did you make a spell on him? He has never talked out loud,” the dark-haired teen, after these two weeks the boy has learnt that Shun has magical abilities, something to expect from the mermaid queen’s brother.

“No, I just helped him and it’s different,” the child gets to Shun and hugs his leg, “you see, he has a pure heart,” Shun says with a nostalgic smile.

Before Hajime can say anything, the castle’s alarm goes on. Hajime quickly turns around and sees that there is a curtain of black smoke coming out of one of the main towers.

The queen has passed away.

“What is going on?” Rikka questions with big teary eyes, he already has an idea of the reason why.

“I am really sorry, my prince,” Hajime says, his voice breaking with every word he says, and those words are more than enough for Rikka to start crying.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The queen’s funeral takes place the following day, the whole kingdom cries the lost of the queen and during a whole week the grief is held in the entire city. During all that week, Shun keeps hanging around with Hajime and Rikka; he has seen that just as the his king, the human king is completely devastated by the lost of his queen. Dai, the human king, who has won richness and has protected his kingdom, was not able to keep the only person he has loved with him.

“I have to return to the ocean tomorrow,” Shun suddenly expresses as they see Rikka playing with the sand, “My king asked me to learn about humans’ weakness and I did,” the teen says.

“Eh? What do you mean?” the dark-haired boy questions.

“Once I got here, I notice that your king and my king were too similar and once that your queen was gone, I verify my suppositions.”

Shun makes a pause, he has been so wrong thinking that he could come here and go back to just deliver his report on what he has learnt. He has been so wrong because seeing everyone’s kindness, seeing as everyone cares and helps the other… every single action reminded him of his own kingdom.

“Love is humans’ biggest weakness, just like love is our biggest weakness too,” Shun expresses and sighs, “I want to try and convince my king that we do not need a revenge, the human kingdom has already paid the price of its act.”

The white-haired boy exclaims and takes Hajime hands.

“Rikka… he has gone through the same suffering that my nephews lived… practically alone, he does not deserve to suffer more.”

“Shun… is it possible? Can you convince your king? I don’t want more suffering… no more suffering for anyone,” Hajime whispers the last part, at the end both kingdoms grieved for one crime and there was no heroic act at all at the end.

“If I don’t come to see you in three days… It means that I have failed,” the white-haired teen expresses.

“I will come every morning to find you,” Hajime immediately replies.  

“You know, if I could, I have sung my first love song to you right here, right now,” Shun says, tears are starting to form in his eyes.

“First love song?”

Taking advantage that Rikka is still distracted playing with the sand and occasionally running to let his body feel the water from the ocean, Shun proceeds to explain. The first love song, a melody that a merman or mermaid can only sing to his first and true love. Among the merpeople, this song is known as something so special and unique that cannot even be reproduced by the merman ever again in his lifetime.

“I don’t know if I ever be able to sing it to you, or if I will be able to see you ever again, so… listen to me now, I love you,” Shun expresses with no hesitation.

Of course, the dark-haired man was not expecting such a confession at that moment. For some seconds he simply stares at Shun completely speechless and trying to find the words to reply.

“Shun… I…”

“Hajime, Shun!!!!” Rikka calls them out, the boy is carrying some seashells, “Here, these are for you!”

The little boy expresses and gives the seashells to the teenagers. Hajime is trying really hard to smile back at the boy since he really needed a bit more of time alone with Shun. On the other hand, Shun smiles, the pure heart of this little boy might be the only key to save the humans from the king’s wrath. However, in the worst case, Rikka could also be the doomed of the entire kingdom, his kindness and soft heart would never be strong enough to fight against any threat. Then, Rikka turns around and runs again towards the ocean, giggling and looking for more seashells.

“Hajime, keep protecting him, you are all he has from now an on.” Shun indicates.

“The king, he is…”

“The king will lose his mind and that will lead him to destruction,” the white-haired boy whispers, “The legend he knew did not save the person he loved, and that only leads to the ruin.”

Hajime nods, in just these few days he has noticed how the king has changed. Honestly, many people in the castle have changed and that’s something that scares Hajime. Is he really going to be able to protect Rikka? If he has to be honest, he is unsure that he has that kind of power, but he will keep the promise as long as he can to Shun.

“I will, I will protect Rikka.”

“And please, don’t you ever lose your mind over love,” the boy adds, he already knows that he will be capable of committing such a thing, but he needs Hajime to be strong.

“I promise that I will protect Rikka and I will never lose my mind over love.”

*°*°*°*°*°°**°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

Hajime has already helped Dai with getting dry clothes on again, he is still wondering why he reveals all those memories to Dai. Especially, when he sees that the boy has kept the same poker face thought the entire story. However, little does he knows that the light-blue haired boy is internally panicking for all what he has heard, what is it that he is always showered with memories and stuff from the past when he thinks he is getting better? Dai mentally slaps himself, he has to keep being strong.

“After that he went back to the ocean, I’m sure he did something to me… we had a last conversation that I cannot remember,” Hajime explains with some melancholy in his voice, “I hate to sail because I’m sure he is somewhere in the ocean, but I cannot find him, and I’m sure he did erase Rikka’s memories from those days, well, I was the only one who remembered him after he left.”

Dai looks up at Hajime, this is another of those moments in which he is thankful for not being able to talk. How would Hajime react if he could know what Shun has done? Definitely, the White Wizard is a completely different being from the one that lives in Hajime’s memories.

“He used to talk a lot about his nephews and used to say that it would be good for my king to meet them, that in that way Rikka could be more outgoing,” the dark-haired man proceeds with his monologue, “but, I guess he could not convince his king after all.”

Dai nods at the comment, and that makes Hajime remember the real purpose of this story telling time.

“Young man, Dai, be honest with me, are you part of the Tsukino Empire?”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The king has taken a long time to greet the citizens and welcoming them to the “Dark Moon Festival,” the reason; Rikka wants to be sure that Dai will be there as soon as the festival starts. Nevertheless, Kouki and Kensuke keep insisting that is time to begin since the guesses they have welcomed from other kingdoms are getting impatient. Of course, Rikka wants to refuse the request, but he knows it is true. Thus, the king goes to the main stage that has been built in the middle of the square and starts the celebration.

“Welcome to our traditional “Dark Moon Festival,” the pink haired expresses and the multitude eagerly applause.

Still, not wanting to start with the main parts of the celebrations, Rikka tries to delay them by randomly talking about past festivals. Nevertheless, the king starts to notice the discontent among the crew and so he knows that he needs to keep on going. The pink haired sighs and prepares himself to begin with the main point of attraction for this year.

“Sixteen years ago, my father, king Dai, went to the ocean and looked for the mysterious kingdom, the Tsukino Empire,” Rikka begins with the traditional discourse, “Many rulers laughed at him, and many of them took the chance to attack our lands while he was gone; nevertheless, his patience and effort brought us the biggest treasure that anyone could imagine.”

Rikka makes a pause in his discourse, he hates to talk about this as an act of bravery and heroism, it was not. However, he understood that his father’s action was wrong until he was a teenager and the tradition had become too important for his citizens. The king takes a deep breath and looks up, luckily for him, at that moment he gets to visualize that Dai has arrived to the square with Hajime and that gives him strength to keep going.

“However, with his act, we must know that a kingdom out there was left with a huge grieve, we must know that our real savior back then was the mermaid queen,” he knows that this is completely different from what his people are expecting, but he needed to do something different this time.

On the other hand, Dai is completely frozen by listening to Rikka’s words, what is he going to do? Why is he saying this kind of thing?

“Therefore, as of today, I do not want to remember only my father’s act, I want also to remember the bless and power that was given to us by the mermaid queen’ sacrifice.”

Once those words are said, the veil that was behind Rikka falls down revealing a painting of the mermaid queen. Immediately, Hajime looks back at Dai, the dark-haired man knew that this was something that Dai was not prepared for. The light blue haired boy starts to slowly walk towards the paint. It has been years since he had seen such a clear image of his mother, it has been years since he had seen his mother’s face with no blood. Nonetheless, before he could move any further, Hajime stops him.

“You do not want the king to know your origin, right?” he quickly whispers while Rikka keeps talking.

Dai looks back at Hajime with teary eyes, he wants to get closer to the portrait. Nonetheless, Hajime is right; he does not want Rikka to know the truth since he is afraid that Rikka will not love him once he finds out that he is actually a merman. The dark-haired man pats Dai’s shoulder and hopes that the young man can compose himself faster, but it does not seem possible; at least not before Rikka can reach them.

“Dai! You are here!” the pink haired happily says, “What happened? Are you alright?” Rikka worriedly asks.

“He might be feeling sick, I will take him to the castle, it’s better if he does not stay here,” Hajime quickly says and is turning around with Dai to go back to the castle.

“Hajime…”

The king calls him, his voice making clear that he wants a better explanation, and of course he wants Dai to stay. Nevertheless, after having shared such a conversation with Dai, full of memories and truths; Hajime is more than sure that for now he needs to help the younger boy. Dai is really trying to keep his composure, trying hard not to look back at the portrait.

“Your majesty, please, we will talk once the festival is over,” the assistance expresses.

“I needed to ask something important to Dai,” the king insists.

Dai turns around and looks at Rikka; nevertheless, his gaze is completely lost in the portrait. The tallest boy forces himself to look at Rikka in the eyes, he has to remember the promise he just made to his brothers and to his mother. Dai pushes back all his feelings and smiles at Rikka, waiting for the question that the pink haired needs to ask. However, this time the king realizes that this is not the proper moment.

“It’s ok, you can go back to the castle if you are not feeling good, I will finish my job here as soon as possible so I can be with you,” the pink haired boy expresses.

“It is the best, we will see you in the castle, enjoy the festival, my king,” Hajime interferes quicker and takes Dai with him.

The light blue haired boy looks at Rikka and then at Hajime, just what happened? He keeps being dragged by Hajime back to the castle with no option to stop the dark-haired man.

“You confessed your secret to me, allow me to help you, ok?” the older man says, “16 years ago I said to Shun that I want this to be over, no more suffering for any of the involved parts, and now I hope you can help me to get that achieve.”

Dai is confused by the request, but he is clear that Hajime is right. If 16 years ago his father would have listened to Shun and would have forgiven human kind, none of this would be happening; or at least things would be too different for both kingdoms. Therefore, Dai nods and agrees to follow Hajime back to the castle. Unfortunately, they do not notice the silhouette of a person that has been following them all this time. A person that knows both of them just too well and that will not allow them to find the peaceful resolution they want.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am getting closer to the end... the bad thing is that I'm not really sure on how LOL  
> Thanks for reading!


	12. The Impostor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One last threat is being played by the White Wizard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hi... so my computer died and now I cannot write as much as I used to.... my plan was to finish with this fic before the end of the year but thanks to my computer committing suicide (ok no the poor girl was too old and the main board passed away) this will not be very likely to happen.... and all of this is to let you know the reason why updates might become even more irregular... also,... short chapter due to that situation, I've been writing during short periods of free time at work XD

**Chapter 12: The Impostor**

It is the first time since all this mess started that they feel a bit better going back to the castle, they have even shared a few words and some smiles. Of course, they are quite sure the feel will go away once they must see their father again; or maybe a bit earlier. Suddenly, they see Shu hurriedly swimming towards them and his face clearly reflects that something is not going well.

“Ah…… I forgot to tell you, Shu knows everything by now,” Shiki quickly says before the mess he was avoiding mixes up with the upcoming news.

“What?! Why didn’t you…”

“Doesn’t matter now, Shu seems like he needs to say something, let’s go,” the purple haired merman expresses and ignores whatever Tsubasa keeps saying.

“Oh yeah, let me know the news at the end so I can’t complaint and freak out, wonderful work, darling, you are really making your best in making me mad.”

Sighing and trying to suppress his frustration, Tsubasa quickly swims after Shiki until the point they are closed to Shu. The third king’ son looks frantic and grabs Shiki’s arm.

“Uncle Shun is in the castle.”

That is all he needs to say for the other two to follow him with no further questions. Once in the castle, they see the king and all his brothers at the royal court and right in the middle of them, the White Wizard. Immediately, a malicious smile can be seen on his face, then he clears his throat getting everyone’s attention.

“Now that my dear family is complete… well almost, I unfortunately realized that our youngest member is lost.”

Shun expresses and looks at Shiki and Tsubasa. The oldest feels as his heart speeds up and the anger is about to make him go against his uncle. On the other hand, Tsubasa holds Shiki’s arm, hoping that he can calm him down with just his touch and making him understand that they cannot reveal themselves. Whatever Shun is about to say will make things bad enough.

“What do you want, Shun? I allow you to have a word with us due to an impulse full of sentimentalism, but if you are going to make fun of our disgrace I will make sure you can never come back to us ever again,” the king states and hits the seafloor with his trident to make himself clear.

“My, my, your bad mood has not changed during these 16 years, I miss the days when you were a happy king,” the White Wizard mocks and swims around looking at all his nephews to stop right in front of the king.

One more time, he looks at all, Ryota, Tsubasa, Eichi, Shu, Mamoru, and at the end he stares longer at Shiki and smiles at the oldest. The first son of the king cannot stop wondering what Shun is doing here and what he is planning, then the wizard speaks again.

“My king, I am offended by the fact you have not requested my help to find Dai; nevertheless, I know I can find him, bring him back, and take revenge over the humans.”

The room is filled with silence, Shiki feels as he is about to grab Shun’s neck to keep him quiet while the other brothers are starting to murmur between themselves. The king himself is awestruck, how would Shun be capable of doing all of that? He is simply bragging and deceiving them, that is what the king concludes. A couple of seconds later, the king moves to be face to face with Shun and confront him.

“16 years ago, I gave you a specific mission and you failed, why would it be different now?”

The White Wizard laughs and swims around the king.

“You do not have to believe me my king but be prepared for a bigger war with the human kind, a war you never imagine!”

Shun whispers into the king’s ear while he touches the seashell charm that he is wearing while he traces the king’s trident. Then, a dark light surrounds the white wizard, a new spell is taking place and the grin on Shun’s face terrifies the king.

“You just have to wait for the war,” the wizard expresses with a familiar voice, Dai’s voice.

The king is completely petrified by this and tries to stop Shun by throwing one of the light’s beam at him. Nevertheless, the wizard speaks again.

“Are you going to hurt me, father?” the voice reminding him of Dai and making him regret all what he did to his son before the young boy had disappeared.

The king having his heart hurt does not realize that the White Wizard is shooting at him with his dark magic powers. Quickly, the king tries to avoid the hit, but still a part of the beam impacts against him

“What did you do to Dai?!” Ryota screams out loud, but the merman simply laughs and leaves the castle.

Eichi and Mamoru go next to his father and help him to recover from the impact. On the other hand, without further hesitation, Shiki and Tsubasa follow the White Wizard. For a moment, Shu hesitates if he should go after them or if he should stay with his other brothers and father. Nonetheless, when he sees the lugubrious environment, he decides to stay hoping that Shiki and Tsubasa can stop their uncle.

“Shun! You bastard! Stop right there!” Shiki screams and swims faster to catch his uncle.

“Uncle please, stop,” Tsubasa begs as well, why is everything becoming so messed up again? Weren’t they getting closer to find something similar as a happy ending.

The wizard stops until the moment that he is closed to the surface to perform the beginning of his last threat. Shun looks at Shiki and Tsubasa, for a moment he feels sorry for them, but this is what he has been waiting for all these years.

“Shiki, are you going to mess this up too? Are you going to fail again?”

The voice he hears hurts him more than what he would like, but Shiki tries to ignore the pain and to remember that this is Shun and not his little brother.

“I am sorry to inform you, but this plan of mine will not fail.”

Shun starts singing, a new spell song without a doubt. Immediately, there is some kind of barrier between Shun and his nephews; nevertheless, Shiki and Tsubasa are able to see as Shun’s body becomes a human body. The fear striking the two princes, what is Shun going to do in the human world? In a desperate attempt Shiki tries to hold into the White Wizard to prevent him from going to the surface, but with no result. Shiki is thrown against to the water and unable to follow Shun’s.

“I’ve never seen that kind of magic,” Tsubasa whispers helping Shiki.

“He mixed them up, light and dark magic,” Shiki deduces and even if he is hurt he tries to move and get back on track to follow Shun.

“Shiki! Stop it! What are you trying to do?! Shiki!!!!!”

“I will follow him! Ok?! I will follow him and stop him!”

Listening to that reply only makes Tsubasa angrier, the blond merman hurries and moves in front of Shiki stopping him of continuing with a pointless persecution. Even if he has to knock down Shiki, he will do it since this will not take them anywhere.

“He has legs, we don’t, he can go to the surface, we can’t, get that into your stubborn head and let’s think what we can do to help Dai!”

Even if he does not want to recognize it, Shiki knows that Tsubasa is right. They will first need to think what Shun really wants and what he will do. Why did he mention that a war is coming? How would he start a war between the two kingdoms?

“Fine… but I will not go back to the castle, I do not want our father in the middle of this.”

Tsubasa could perfectly proceed with his previous plan and hit Shiki to make him fall unconscious and take him to the castle. However, he also understands why Shiki acts like this, and mainly, he is more than sure that he is the only one who would be able to help Shiki at this moment.

“If we cannot do anything for Dai, promise me we will ask for help, even if it is at the last moment because I know that father might be able to do something.”

“At the last moment,” Shiki sentences and starts swimming without a specific destination, Tsubasa following him very closely.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

Back in the castle, Hajime is in Dai’s room, they are both looking at an empty space, so many things making sense and so many mixed feelings. It has taken a long time for Hajime to decipher the entire story that Dai has communicated to him through signs and just gestures.

“Making Rikka fall in love with you,” Hajime whispers, “well, if you ask me, that part is already done, but you also need to confess your feelings to break the curse and be able to stay as a human, right?”

Dai nods while his face is completely blush. Is Hajime telling the truth? Is Rikka already in love with him? He cannot keep being distracted on his thoughts, Hajime stands up and grunts. When Dai looks up, he sees that the dark-haired man is stretching himself and then he yawns.

“I believe my supposition was correct and the king was not able to leave the festival early,” the man expresses and sighs, “lots of hypocrites come to the festival every year to beg for mercy and get a bit of the treasures the kingdom won after…”

Hajime stops right there, he should be more careful now that he knows that Dai is the son of the mermaid queen that was murdered. Then, the dark-haired man clears his throat and proceeds to pats Dai’s head.

“Anyways, it is better if you get some rest, now I understand a lot of things about you and I assume that you must be exhausted, please rest.”

The older man expresses, but Dai shakes his head in a negative answer, he wants to wait for Rikka. He shouldn’t have felt down when he got to the festival, he should have been braver at that moment. Dai strongly grabs the blankets, he has never felt so angry with himself for being so weak, in the past it didn’t matter if he was or was not weak, but now… even his brothers are in danger because of his decisions. Hajime sighs at the view, knowing how the festival is, he is more than likely that Rikka will be back after midnight; even more, he knows that everyone gets drunk during the festivity and the king is not an exception. Therefore, waiting for a drunken Rikka to speak with Dai is not a good idea; nevertheless, he is not sure if Dai will understand this whole situation.

“Listen, I am quite sure that the best thing to do is to rest, Rikka is going to come back pretty late to the castle, and most likely, he will be out of himself.”

At the last comment Dai is clearly scared, out of himself? How? Why? Is something wrong going to happen to Rikka at the end of the festival? Having all those thoughts in his mind; Dai stands up more than ready to go by Rikka’s side. Immediately, the dark-haired man grabs Dai by his shoulders and sits him down again.

“Young man, I said I will help you and I will do so, but you also need to trust me, ok?” Hajime expresses looking at Dai straight into his eyes.

There is some hesitation coming from Dai’ side, but if he has to be honest, Hajime is the only one he can trust for real right now. Thus, the light blue haired boy nods and accepts to stay in the castle. Even though they have come to an agreement, Hajime does not leave the room until making sure that Dai is lying on the bed and ready to sleep, something that does not seem to be possible very soon.

“You want to look at the sky?” Hajime asks when he sees that Dai sits again and hurries as much as possible to the window.

The boy points at the moon and smiles, it takes some moments to Hajime to understand. However, seconds later he remembers that the Tsukino Empire’s queen was blessed by the moon and according to the legend; once she passed away, she will be back to the kingdom she belongs to, the moon kingdom. Therefore, he kindly smiles back at Dai.

“Is your mother, right?” Hajime asks him and Dai excitedly nods, “She is always beautiful, I mean it with respect.”

Dai’ smile gets wider and he nods again. He closes his eyes as if he is expressing his thoughts to his mother and then the boy goes back to lie down on his bed. He will follow Hajime’s instructions and sleep, after all it is true that he is tired from all the previous days. Therefore, getting a nice rest will help him to accomplish his goal.

“You are like a kid,” Hajime says while he giggles and Dai furrows his brow, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t want to offend you, I’ll get you as much time with Rikka as possible tomorrow, ok?”

The man proposes and the younger eagerly agrees.

“I hope you can take advantage and find a way to confess your feelings,” the man adds as he goes closer to the door.

Maybe Dai should have confessed his situation to Hajime before, but of course he was unknown to the whole past of the White Wizard. The Wizard… how hurtful would it be for Hajime to know about the Wizard’s actions?

“Is everything ok?” Hajime asks him before he leaves the room, quickly the boy nods to avoid having to explain what he knows, “Fine, then see you tomorrow, sleep well.”

Hajime leaves the boy’s room and even though he has been willing to wait for Rikka in the castle, a strange feeling invades him. Consequently, he decides to go and look for the king. After all, Dai is already resting and it is his responsibility to take care of the king.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

It has taken longer than what he originally has planned to leave the festival, but as usual more than one king was willing to offer his daughter or son in exchange of richness. Just how sick are people for money and power? The pink haired wonders as he walks through the alleys that he is sure will be empty by now and hurrying his steps. Needless to say, he is extremely worry for Dai, he is not sure if the light blue haired boy was having another panic attack or if it was for real that he was feeling sick this time. At the moment, it does not really matter what was the cause for that sad expression on Dai’s face; for Rikka all that matters now is to get to the castle and be with Dai. Nevertheless, it seems as he has been walking through the same alley for more time than expected, something in his heart tells him that there is something wrong. However, stubbornly he keeps walking, hoping to find the exit soon and get to the castle.

“It is not that late to feel so confused,” Rikka mutters to himself, “I didn’t even drink this time since I want to talk with Dai, come on… the exit, where is the exit?”

A king lost in his own kingdom, how ridiculous? Rikka thinks and since his desperation is taking the best of him, he starts taking different paths. First, he turns right and then left, going left again and looking for a way out of the alleys that were supposed to be his shortcut to the castle. Then, in the middle of his frustration he hears a singing voice which makes him stop; it is a familiar voice and one that he needed to listen to. Lost in the beauty of the melody that the person is performing; the pink haired starts walking towards the direction of the voice. It surprises Rikka that all of a sudden, the path is surrounded by a heavy mist, but he keeps on moving and let himself being guided by a flickering light that he can observe at the end of the path. Just when he is starting to think that his mind is playing tricks on him, he gets to find a person, the owner of the voice.

Rikka stops his steps and stares at the man he just found; a beautiful young man whose hair is blue like the ocean and his eyes bright shine as the stars. The king feels the urge to move closer and be able to see the true color of the eyes that shine so clearly in the middle of such dark place. Then, the unknown man looks up and keeps his eyes locked with Rikka’s eyes, a mischievous smile makes its way on his face and so the man stands up.

“My, my, I am sorry if I interrupted your return,” the man expresses and walks closer to the pink haired to close the distance between them.

“I shall be the one who apologizes for lurking at you,” Rikka quickly replies and moves back, now he feels that he should not be here.

“My king, you do not have to apologize, you just have to listen to my voice.”

The pink haired gives one step back once again and looks for a way out, right at this moment, the need to be back at the castle has become bigger than ever. Nevertheless, the man who Rikka has found takes his hand and slowly the blue haired man places the king’s hand over his chest. Rikka look up to try to comprehend what this person is doing; the pink haired feels as the man’s hand guides his own until making him rub the small seashell charm that the man is wearing.

“I saw you that day, I saved you that day, and you remember me, right?” the man expresses his voice becoming stronger with every word he says.

Then, Rikka’s eyes become dull and the king seems to momentarily lose consciousness. The pink haired is about to fall to the ground, but the unknown man catches him just in time. Then, Rikka opens his eyes and is welcomed by two bright lime eyes.

“You were the one…” the king whispers looking at the man, “you were the one who saved me that night.”

“Yes my king, I was too shy to come and see you, but I love you,” the words are meaningless to the person who is saying them, but Rikka believes them now that he is under the spell.

Quickly, Rikka takes this person’s hands and keeps looking at him straight in to his eyes.

“I love you too,” the king answers back and hugs the other man, “please, I need to know; what is your name?”

“My name is Shun.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

The following morning, Dai awakes and is welcomed by a cold morning, it is weird to him since every day has been sunny and warmth. The young man tries to hear if there is someone outside as usual, but no one seems to be around. Slowly, he gets up of the bed and walks towards the door. Since it is the first day that no one has come to his room to indicates him what to do; he starts to wonder around the palace to see if he can find Hajime, Kensuke or Koki… well it would be even better to find Rikka. At that thought, Dai blushes and slaps himself, the action being caught by Hajime who was actually going to Dai’s room.

“You are awake,” Hajime expresses, immediately, Dai can feel that there is something wrong by the way the man speaks.

The dark-haired man has also realized that his voice gave away all the signs that there is something going wrong. Unable to soften the news to Dai, Hajime sighs and goes closer to the boy.

“Listen, yesterday after the festival, the king met someone,” Hajime starts explaining and he knows that Dai has not understood what he is trying to say, “this person has claimed that he saved Rikka the other day and so… our king will marry this person.”

Dai stares at Hajime in disbelief, he feels as the world has suddenly stopped and his heart is beating fast. A new person? Rikka will marry someone? Why? He was the one who saved Rikka and Hajime knows that! Dai tries to walk past Hajime and go to find Rikka, he needs to see the pink haired, he needs to know what happened during last night. Nevertheless, Hajime stops him, it is pointless to see Rikka as of right now. Throughout all the night and part of the morning Hajime has been trying to persuade Rikka to change his mind, he has tried to remind him of Dai and how he has been feeling for the boy during the last day, he even told him that Dai was the real one who saved him. Nevertheless, his tries were pointless, everything he said it was completely useless.

“Young boy, Dai, please… don’t do this to yourself, not yet,” Hajime speaks and hugs the younger boy, “give me some time, alright? I haven’t seen this person, but I will try to find out who the person is, ok? We will do something, I promise.”

Dai looks with crying eyes to Hajime; how would it be possible for him to simply wait? If he waits and Rikka gets married, then his brothers will have to pay for his mistake and he will have to go back to the ocean completely alone.

“Trust me, ok? I will help you.”

Weakly Dai nods and returns to his room accompany by Hajime, the cold weather only reminding him of the pain his heart feels at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... so far I'm happy with what I have written for this story and I hope that people who read this story feel the same way, also all the things that have been different from the fairy tale are ideas that I have talked with my little sister to see if the make sense XD kudos for her for listening to me XD  
> Thank you for reading!!!


	13. Last Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final trick it's on its way, the White Wizard will not stop his desire for revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, thanks heaven I'm able to have a computer with me, it's not mine, but it's also mine hahaha, it's confusing LOL anyways, new chapter thanks to that...

Chapter 13: Last Chance

Dai is still in his room, after Hajime gave him the news and took him here; he has not felt in the mood to move from his bed. How is it possible that Rikka has fallen in love with someone else? The light blue haired boy thinks as he hugs his knees and tries to hold his tears. Suddenly, someone knocks on his door and the boy gets startled by the noise; quickly after, Kensuke gets in the room with the twins.

“Hi, hi, young man, Hajime wants to ask you a tiny favor,” the dark blue haired man expresses, and Dai looks at him with curiosity, “He wants you to take care of the twins for today since most of us are going to be busy with the wedding preparations.”

Immediately, Kensuke regrets his words, everyone in the castle has been aware that Dai is in love with the king. Moreover, most of the servitude were more than sure that Rikka was also in love with the mysterious boy. Kensuke sighs and scratches his head this is for sure an uncomfortable situation; however, before Kensuke can say something, Issei has walked towards Dai and hugs him. Even the children know that the young boy is suffering in this moment since Ichiru has also joined in the action. Dai feels the tears about to flow and he hugs back the twins, their warmness feels similar as the one his brothers used to give him. The view is so heartening that the servant gets lost in the moment.

“Oi, Kensuke, don’t you have to go back with Koki?” Ichiru suddenly snaps at the servant.

“Oh man! It’s true!” the dark blue haired man says, “Would you three be fine for the day? You can go to the beach or stay in the castle, ok?”

“We will, now go, you have to help Koki!” the younger twin says, and the man smiles back.

Kensuke bows and leaves the room. For a second, the twins stay just sitting down next to Dai; even if they were too confident at the beginning, they don’t really know how to act now. They have heard the servitude talking about the unknown man being in love with the king, and so, they don’t know how to heal a broken heart. At least, they are assuming that Dai has his heart broken after knowing that Rikka will get marry. Then, Issei looks at Ichiru and points out of the window.

“Do you want to go to the beach?” Ichiru asks him and the older twin points at Dai, “Dai wants to go to the beach?”

Issei does not seem completely happy by the interpretation since he is the one that believes that going to the beach will help the young man. Nevertheless, seeing that Dai’s face brightens up Issei knows that his plan will work. Therefore, the boy nods and grabs Dai’s hand so the tallest boy stands up.

“Ok, ok, let’s go all together to the beach,” Ichiru happily expresses and takes Dai’s free hand, “Do you know how to swim, Dai?”

At the question, Dai happily nods, but then he remembers that he has had troubles while being in the water with his human legs. Nevertheless, he knows that it is much better to go to the beach than staying in the castle the whole day. Even if he has been in the castle, he has been unable to see Rikka; his heart aches by the thought, but he needs to trust Hajime, that’s all he can do, right? He allows himself to be dragged by the twins, hoping that once he gets back in the castle the current situation can already have a solution.

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨

Under the sea, in the cave that use to be a shelter full of treasures for a former merman; two mermen are practically breaking their heads to think on a way to help his little brother. Nonetheless, the result is always the same, they cannot go to the human world, they cannot know what Shun is planning to do. Tsubasa hesitantly looks at Shiki, the blond already knows that the only way out they have is asking their father for help, but being honest, he is not sure if his father has the power to send them to the human world. The golden eyes keep staring at the purple haired man who seems as if his brain will explode at any minute.

“Shiki…” Tsubasa whispers.

“Please, don’t say it, not yet, I can think of something, I know I can…” Shiki immediately replies and pulls his hair with his right hand, can he really think about a resolution? He wonders as he starts biting his finger nails.

Tsubasa sighs, he wishes he could force some common sense in that stubborn head, but he also knows that this is something that Shiki needs to do. Suddenly, the two mermen listen to some noises coming from the entrance; Shiki immediately moves towards the entry holding a stone in his hand in case that they need to defend themselves. When Tsubasa notices what Shiki is thinking, he goes right next to the purple haired merman to stop him, the older is just too paranoid with everything that has been happening.

“Shiki, please…” the blond whispers and strongly holds his hand.

“Please listen to Tsubasa,” a voice says and comes in, it’s Shu, “I’m glad that predicting your moves has become easier.”

The third son of the king expresses and the tension on Shiki’s body goes away. The purple haired merman furrows his bow and sighs, it was obvious that at some point Shu will find them. The oldest takes a seat in the middle of the ground, his look is completely lost and Shu and Tsubasa can easily tell that Shiki’s mind is desperately looking for an answer and an action plan to help their little brother.

“Shiki, I know you will disagree, but father is the only option we have,” Shu unexpectedly mentions.

Before the oldest can even protest, Tsubasa also interferes.

“I agree Shiki, there’s only one night, we can only help Dai today, after that…”

“Father hurt Dai, remember? He destroyed everything Dai loves here, if you don’t remember just look around; he exiled our uncle when he fell in love with a human,” Shiki says through gritted teeth, “what makes you think that he can help us now?”

Shu lowers his head, and then he proceeds.

“Then, our brothers, they also need to know, then all of us can find a way to help Dai, six mermen can do something.”

“Shu…”

“Shiki, please, if you really care for Dai this is something we can do,” Tsubasa expresses and he goes next to Shiki, he takes his lover hands and looks at him straight to the eyes, “I know this is not the last moment, but we cannot really sit here and wait for a miracle to happen.”

Shiki does not want to accept it, just not yet. His mind keeps on thinking that there must be something he can do.

“Shiki, darling, we have to be honest, we cannot handle magic, our talents have nothing to do with the human world, but we must do something, all of us can do something together, you are not alone in this.”

Unable to hold his emotions any longer, Shiki breaks into tears and hugs Tsubasa. It is more than obvious that this was something that Tsubasa nor Shu were expecting to happen.

“I don’t want to fail him,” Shiki says with a trembling voice and clinging tightly into Tsubasa.

The blond kindly smiles and strongly hugs Shiki back.

“Then, listen to us, you have done a lot to protect Dai, to protect all of us, and now it is our turn to help you as well,” the blond expresses with a gentle voice, “you’ve been a great older brother to all of us, but now we can also be great brothers to you, ok?”

The purple haired man feels as his heart aches, calling all his brothers… would Dai agree on this?

“Dai… let’s go to the surface first, Shu, you are coming with us!”

Shiki starts swimming without waiting for anyone and Tsubasa sighs.

“You know? For a little moment, I thought we had gotten there and that he would accept some help but seeing that he is allowing you to tag along, well that must mean something good, he is improving,” the blond merman expresses, but still he is a bit disappointed.

Shu pats Tsubasa’s head and nods. At least, at this moment he is also allowed to go to the surface and he might be able to convince Dai of getting their brothers to help him.

“I wonder, is Shiki really thinking about a solution? I mean, Dai usually comes to see us at night…”

“Maybe today there can be a miracle and a change of routine,” Shu replies and swims right next to Tsubasa, this is the first time that he is going to the surface, so he is actually nervous of what will happen.

“If that is the case, I will consider you a good luck charm.”

Shu chuckles at the comment and keeps going, he wonders how it would feel to be out of the water.

                                                  *¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨

In the castle, Hajime is still trying to get a word with Rikka, but so far, there’s no positive outcome. The king is still locked in his room with the mysterious person that showed up to him the previous night; it has been like this since they had their little conversation once the king returned the previous night.

“My king, I need to speak to you about the wedding preparations,” Hajime says this time hoping that he can get the permission to go inside the room.

“I already gave you my specifications for the celebration, Hajime,” the king replies and the dark-haired man feels his head about to combust.

“Rikka, we need to talk.”

Hajime has always known that calling the king by his name is the usual way to get him to react, although he hates to use this trick. Fortunately, it still works, and the door gets finally to be opened. The dark-haired man internally sighs and goes inside the room. Immediately, he notices the unknown person who is sitting by the window and who completely ignores his presence. The loyal servant moves forward with the king to the desk that is on Rikka’s room and asks the king to take a seat.

“I believe I was clear enough with you when I said that we should not go near the ocean ever again,” Hajime expresses when he reviews that the king wants to have his marriage ceremony in a ship in the middle of the ocean.

“That is a special request made by my fiancé,” the pink haired says and looks at the man.

“And may I know the name of your fiancé; since it seems like he is kind of shy and does not want to introduce himself,” the older man expresses with an ironic voice.

“His name is…”

“Does it really matter? I believe you can plan this wedding without those minor details,” the man expresses with a strong voice.

For some reason, Hajime perceives fakeness in this voice, but this person’s presence makes him feel a peculiar sensation. The dark-haired man observes from head to toes the person who has spoken, there is something about this man that does not fit. Even though Hajime feels that there are odd things about this person, he needs to continue his conversation with the king.

“Rikka,” he immediately calls the pink haired by his name again, “can we talk about this? Just the two of us?”

The king does not seem to react, his eyes seem to be lost and there is no response.

“Probably the king is too tired, you should come back later,” the person speaks again.

“With all due respect, young man, the king has dictated he wants the weeding to take place tomorrow; therefore, there is no option to wait.”

The man laughs at the serious response and goes right next to Rikka’ side. Now that Hajime has the chance to see him closer he feels as he has seen this person before, he knows he has talked with this man in the past. Nevertheless, before he can get his mind to find the answer, the blue haired man whispers some words into Rikka’s ear.

“I believe he is ready to speak with you, I’ll be walking around so you two can have that necessary conversation,” the man expresses and leaves the room.

Now, Hajime is completely sure that this man is using some tricks on the king… could it be magic? The dark-haired man feels as his heart speeds up, could it be him? Hajime looks back at the door, the person is no longer there, but the presence he felt was too familiar, it was a presence he has been needing back for too long. The dark-haired man stands up, he needs to go after that person.

“Hajime?” Rikka whispers, he does seem to be tired and weaker than usual, for a moment, the dark-haired man feels as if he is looking at the little kid the king used to be.

A tired and sick face, Hajime shivers at the memory, if that man is really Shun… he cannot take back the power that was given to Rikka through the mermaid Queen’s blood, right? As fast as he can, Hajime asks Rikka to take a seat and right after that he pours some water to the king in a glass and offers it to the pink haired.

“My king, do you feel alright?”

“Just tired, that’s it probably from last night, please do not worried about me,” the king expresses and drinks a bit of the water, “I know I promised you a couple of days ago not to go into the ocean ever again, but this time is necessary.”

“I have a bad feeling about it,” the dark-haired man replies unable to hide his fear.

Even though Hajime was expecting a reply from the king, there’s nothing.

“My king, do you really want to marry this person? Are you sure of your decision?” Hajime insists, “just yesterday you seem to protect and defend Dai, you even seem to be in love with him, but…”

“I do not care about Dai, he is just a boy I helped, but I do not feel love for him,” the king quickly replies, “Hajime, please, I want you to accomplish with all that has been requested for the wedding; you can bring Dai to the wedding, but again, I do not have feelings for the boy.”

Although, Hajime is not the one being rejected, he feels as his heart is being pierced by the words. He has promised Dai that he would help him, but how can he fight against magic? There is no living human that can handle magic… there is no way he can fight back.

“I understand, my king, I will go and look for…” Hajime purposely stops to then proceed to ask the person’s name, “Would you mind telling me your fiancé’s name?”

“His name is Shun.”

The world has completely stopped for Hajime after he listens to that name. This was the only confirmation he needed, those eyes, that way of speaking… that presence, it is his Shun. The dark-haired man looks at the king, his eyes are teary, and he tries his best to keep his voice steady.

“I see, I will go and look for Shun then, I believe you must want to be with him.”

The man expresses and lowers his head. Quickly, he leaves the room; his mind being a complete disaster. Once he is out, and in a hall where he knows no one will see him nor found him, he allows himself to fall on his knees. The man immediately let the tears out and tries his best to muffle his sobs.

“Why?” he mutters, “what happened with you and your king? Why do you need to do this?” Hajime wonders cleaning his tears, “you told me that you will sing your first love song to me but… but now…”

The dark-haired man takes a deep breath and forces himself to calm down. This is no time for crying, this is no time to allow his old self to complain about his destiny. The man stands up and turns around just to see that right there is Shun.

“I guess I need more than a different hair color and a different voice to deceive you,” the man expresses with a mischievous smile, “nevertheless, I cannot allow you to know who I really am.”

Before Hajime could protest, the seashell charm shines and Shun whispers some words that are inaudible to Hajime and the man falls unconscious.

“My words were true,” Shun says while he catches Hajime, “I wanted to sing my first love song to you, but my heart has become rotten and there is only the desire for chaos and destruction for me.”

The man expresses, there is no hesitation when he says his real goal. Then, he lies Hajime against a wall, Shun hopes that the current spell makes Hajime forgets him for real this time. Nevertheless, seeing that the man was able to keep a memory of him throughout all these years makes him think that somehow Hajime is able to repel magic.

“Please, let your thoughts and memories about me to be slept until I can obtain my revenge,” Shun whispers, “Although, once my plan is completed, I do not believe you can forgive me nor love me, but that is something I accepted a long time ago.”

Looking around to make sure that no one is there, Shun stands up and leaves Hajime there. At this moment, the only thing he needs to do now is to have a small conversation with his youngest nephew.

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

Dai is more than happy of being able to be at the beach, he would have never imagined that being with Issei and Ichiru could actually be funny and entertained. Of course, he does not have younger brothers; so, being the first time in which he is taking care of someone and playing with younger people, he sees this as refreshing and amazing. The light blue haired man has enjoyed of watching the kids building a sand castle and collecting seashells to decorate said castle. Then, Ichiru has been the first one to ask Dai to teach him how to swim, but since the boy is unable to talk it has been a bit difficult.

“Ah well… maybe another day,” Ichiru says with a sad voice which makes Dai feel bad, “I want to learn how to swim to save the king when necessary!”

Dai looks at Ichiru with curiosity as if asking the twin to explain more.

“The king does not know how to swim,” Ichiru says as he understands Dai’s expression, “that’s why the other day when our ship crashed we were all so scared of not seeing Rikka again.”

At the explanation, Dai feels terrified. What would have happened to Rikka if he wouldn’t have been there that day? Would the pink haired have drowned? Would Rikka be…? No, he does not want to think about that. Suddenly, and before Ichiru can go back to talk, Issei pulls Dai by his shirt’ sleeve; the tallest man looks down and sees Issei pointing at the ocean. The young man then takes a look and see three heads sticking out of the water; immediately, he feels as his heart would stopped. What are his brothers doing there? What if the twins see them?! In the middle of his panic attack, he feels again as Issei pulls from his shirt’ sleeve again.

The oldest twin also pulls his younger brother and points at the ocean. Quickly after that, he cups Ichiru’s face with his hands and then with his fingers he signs a cross in front of his mouth.

“A secret?! But there are mermen!!! Rikka will love to know!!” Ichiru practically screams and Dai’s heart beats faster.

Issei furrows his brow and instead of crossing just fingers he now crosses his arms and looks sternly at Ichiru. The gesture is more than enough to Ichiru to lift his hand make a pinky promise with his brother. Issei smiles happily and then looks at Dai.

“You can go, we will not say anything,” Ichiru expresses, “my brother knew you were a merman, but I didn’t believe him because Hajime said it was not true… but now I know Hajime was the one being wrong.”

Dai looks amazed at Issei, so the little boy has reminded him and has tried to let everyone know that he is a merman. Nonetheless, even if no one believes him and he probably got himself into some troubles for this, Issei is now helping him. The light blue haired man kneels and hugs the twin, he is truly thankful for the help the little boy has given him; and then he also hugs the younger twin. Then, Dai quickly gets into the ocean, he feels as the knot in his throat grows bigger as he moves closer to his brothers, just how can he explain what has happened?

“Dai!” Tsubasa screams, “Shu, you are definitely a good luck charm,” the blond expresses and swims closer to his little brother.

“There are humans there,” Shu says with a hesitant voice.

“Mother used to say that the small humans were not dangerous, the dangerous humans are the adults,” Shiki specifies trying to give some confidence to his younger brother, “plus Dai trusts them, he wouldn’t have risked us if those tiny humans could be dangerous.”

Shu nods at the comment and starts following Shiki, if they say so they must be correct, after all, Shiki, Tsubasa and of course Dai are the ones who know more about humans. Once they are closed to Dai, the youngest brother practically jumps into Tsubasa’s arms.

“Something happened, right?” the blond merman asks him, hugging him tight and Dai nods.

“It’s the White Wizard, Dai,” Shiki mentions without hesitation, “he was able to cast a spell on himself by using your voice, I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop him.”

Dai holds Shiki’s hand hoping that he can understand that this is not his fault. Then, Dai suddenly snaps at the presence of his other brother, Shu.

“It’s ok Dai, he has not said anything to father, but he believes that if we request help to all of our brothers we can get something done.”

Dai does not know what to reply or at least how to react. All his brothers? Wasn’t Ryota the one that betrayed him? And if he thinks about the others… Mamoru also hates the human world, he does not express it as openly as his father, but he does. In the other hand, Eichi is scared of anything that has to deal with humans… so, how would they be able to help? Or mainly, why would they be willing to help him? He is disobeying every single rule of the merpeople kingdom. He is not someone they should care for.

“If you do not want their help, we will not ask them to come, Dai.”

“Shiki!” Shu complains and sighs, “Listen Dai, we have two options, inform father what happened, or ask our brothers for help.”

“We have to be honest, we are not magicians and we haven’t been blessed yet with the moon’s magic,” Tsubasa expresses and Dai lowers his head.

The youngest brother then looks back at Shiki, but the purple haired merman keeps silence. There are not a lot of solutions now, right? Dai thinks as he feels more aggravated for all the hardships he has caused.

“I know I promised you that everything will work out just fine, and I really wanted it that way, but we are running out of time and options,” Shiki breaks his silence and speaks, “but even like that, I will let you choose, I do not care about being the White Wizard’ slave, I will accept it as my destiny without a problem.”

“I will do so too,” Tsubasa quickly adds.

“Nevertheless,” Shu interferes and hopes to give some common sense to all his brothers, “if we can solve this in the best way possible for all of us, then we have to try it.”

Tsubasa nods and smiles at the comment, he is glad that Shu has joined them and that he is able to give the speech they need to listen to in this moment. On the other side, the blond merman can also see as Shiki still feels defeated, he hopes that Shiki can sooner understand that this is the best and what needs to be done.

“Dai?” Shu’s voice takes Tsubasa out of his thoughts and makes him pay attention to his youngest brother.

Then, shyly Dai raises his hands and signs the number six. The sign he used to use whenever he wanted to go and swim with his six brothers as a baby. Tsubasa and Shu smiles at the decision, but Shiki does not show any emotion.

“We will go now to talk to them, we will be here at night and tomorrow first thing in the morning, ok?” Tsubasa tells Dai and the younger nods.

“Keep strong Dai, this is not the end,” Shu adds and dive into the ocean.

“Shiki?” Tsubasa refers to the oldest brother before following Shu.

“Go with Shu, I want to talk with Dai a bit more.”

Unsure if this is for real a good idea, Tsubasa nods; after all, Shu has already left, and he is more than ready to request their brothers’ help. Then, Shiki sighs and clears his throat; this is not the outcome he wanted, but he was unable to find an answer.

“No matter what Dai, I will fight for you to be happy,” Shiki says and looks with determine eyes to his younger brother.”

Nevertheless, Dai feels so much pain from that phrase, Shiki should be worrying for his own happiness, not his. However, before Dai can sign or try to express something, Shiki dives into the water leaving him behind. The young man feels so confused and useless as he knows that everyone is trying to help him and still he cannot do anything. Being alone in the ocean makes him feel worse and so he decides that it is time to go back with the twins. Even if he does not want to, he has to go back to the castle with the two little boys. Internally, he begs and prays that Hajime can give him some good news because he does not need to have all his brothers involved in this situation and in danger of being another victim or the White Wizard’s tricks. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was not a really good chapter to keep up the happy mood for Christmas... opps... anyways, Merry Christmas all!


	14. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mermen make their decision, Dai keeps looking to talk with Rikka, but Shun will make sure that he is the one having the last word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, thanks heaven work has been slow and my brain really wanted to write this chapter to make up for the last one that I believe was too weak.   
> In my perfect world I only have to write chapter 15 and 16 and thefic will be over, I hope it keeps that way tbh cuz I want to start another multichapter (plus the need to finish one from another afndom)  
> As always, thank you so very much for reading!

**Chapter 14: Together**

The environment in the Mermen’s Castle is without a doubt lugubrious. The king has left with all the royal guard and has locked in the room the three mermen that did not leave the castle after Shun’s visit. The three mermen are in complete silence, they are afraid that his father’s conclusion is correct and that the White Wizard has killed Dai. Just why did the White Wizard take his revenge against the youngest member of the family? The three mermen wonder and keep praying that his father can return sooner with some good news. Suddenly, the silence is interrupted by some sobs, Ryota is uncapable of keep bottling his feelings up.

“Ryota…” Mamoru whispers and moves closer to the merman.

“I just can’t stop thinking that this is my fault,” the pink-tail merman replies, “Everything started when I told father about Dai’ secret place… if I wouldn’t have said a word…”

“I will not contradict that, but if you want to make it up to Dai you can help us now,” Shiki snaps after he has opened the door of the room and throws the lock away.

“This is not the time to start an argument, Shiki,” Shu whispers in Shiki’s ear hoping that the older can listen to him.

The purple haired man grunts, but he knows that Shu is right. Furthermore, they cannot waste any time, telling the whole story that has been going on and where Dai is right now will take all the available time they have. Therefore, Tsubasa is the one who asks his brothers to come around, Shu closes the door again, and then the blond makes the first specification: the one who does not want to help is not allowed to say anything to their father. Even though Mamoru, Ryota and Eichi are not sure of what is happening or why they are being forced to make this promise, they agree and so Tsubasa starts narrating all the events that have happened. It is more than obvious that the three of them are shocked to know that Dai has been living in the human world for almost a week. Nonetheless, and fortunately, the three of them feel angrier towards their uncle as they know how their uncle took advantage of Dai.

“My supposition is that uncle Shun needed to get the trident’s power to free his magic again, which he did yesterday,” Shu concludes after everything has been said.

“Wait, wait, you didn’t say that to us!!!” Tsubasa snaps at the final comment.

“In my defense you two went after uncle without waiting and today you were not in the best shape to share my thoughts with you,” Shu quickly replies to cut off a possible argument.

“At this point what matters is if you three will help or not,” Shiki speaks up after all the talk has been done and decisions need to be made, “if you do not want to, then keep your mouths shut and keep father away.”

The three mermen stay in silence, Shiki’s words are definitive. Feeling disappointed by looking at their brothers’ hesitation, the purple haired merman turns around and is ready to leave. That is until the moment that Ryota grabs his wrist.

“Dai… does he really want to live with the humans? Is this his true will?”

The younger in the room asks, he has tears in his eyes and his voice trembles a little. On the other hand, Shiki sighs, if he has to be honest, he is not sure if Dai has completely made his mind. Every time he has seen his little brother he perceives a weird mixture of happiness and sadness, but at the end, he also knows that Dai has always been someone who is willing to do anything for people he loves. At the thought, he remembers a conversation he had with his mother years ago, why did it take him so long to remember this? The answer does not come to his mind, but at least Shiki knows that this might be helpful in this moment.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know,” Shiki states, and then smiles and continues, “Nevertheless, I think mother’s words are finally making sense.”

“Mother’s words?” Mamoru asks.

“When Dai did not show any other talent besides swimming, mother was also worried, she told me about it,” the oldest brother expresses and smiles at the memory, “but then, one day she returned with Dai, she was smiling and hugging him with so much love. I was curious about what happened since she was not coming back with a sad face as usual.”

All the brothers listen to the story, all of them already shedding tears by their mother memory.

“When I asked her what happened, she looked at me and told me: his talent will join kingdoms,” the merman stops and perceives that his also tearing, “I didn’t understand it back then, but maybe this is the moment in which merpeople and humans can recognize each other, without us living in fear.”

Tsubasa swims right next to Shiki and hugs him, this is definitely something that all of them needed to listen to. Then, Shu also moves towards them and they look at the other three mermen. Hesitantly, Eichi is the first one to join the group, fear is taking the best of him. Nevertheless, if his mother was also looking for the kingdoms to have a peaceful coexistence, then he needs to help to achieve it. Seconds later, Mamoru takes Ryota hands and looks at him in the eyes, this is for sure their moment to make up with Dai and make their mother proud.

“Everyone?” Shiki whispers.

“This is not only for Dai, this is not only for you two, it is also for mother,” Mamoru says looking happily at his brothers, “When she was killed all we did was hiding away, we listened to father without looking for answers by our own,” the merman continues, “thus, I think this is our time to make a new destiny.”

“We’ll help… we’ll help Dai even if that means that he will stay with the humans,” Eichi adds, his nervousness clearly showing, but the determination in his eyes is stronger than ever.

“I… I have always been jealous of Dai, but I never knew why, now I think I was jealous that he was not scared, and that he has always fought for what he wants,” Ryota comments and lowers his face, “now, I want to fight against what’s wrong, I want to fight to protect the ones I love!”

Shiki is in awe, he is not sure on how to react, maybe if the truth has been spoken to his brothers from the beginning they wouldn’t be in such a dilemma. Nonetheless, he knows he cannot allow himself to simply stay there thinking about the “what if.” Now, that they have all their brothers together they really need to come up with a plan. Therefore, they know they will have to wait for now for his father to let him believe that they will stay in the castle and no one will be going out during the night. The last they need is their father discovering what really happens.

“But… what if he locks the door?” Eichi asks, his father has done that before and it is a huge possibility.

“Let’s say we have some help, Lupus!” Tsubasa calls out loud the name of the dolphin and Lupus comes in, “this little boy used to help Dai to escape in the middle of the night… Lupus actually did that more than once, I still don’t know how they were not caught by father.”

“I still do not know how they discovered paths to move through father’s barrier, but those have been very helpful these days.” Shiki adds while patting Lupus.

The four brothers that were unknown to those adventures are awestruck by the revelation, but somehow, they are not as surprised as they could have been. Now, all they need to do is wait for their father and as soon as all the lights in the castle are off they will swim together to the surface to see if Dai has any new information.

*°*°*°*°°**°*°*°*°*°*°**°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

It has been a couple of hours since he came back to the castle with the twins, the only person they have seen is Kensuke. The dark blue haired man has asked them to have lunch in one of the smaller dining rooms since the main room is being decorated for the engagement dinner that they will be having that night. Moreover, the young man has also overheard that the wedding will be taking place in a ship during tomorrow’s night; somehow that reminds Dai of the day he met Rikka and feels nostalgic.

After lunch time, Dai and the twins have been left again alone and to do whatever they want to. Nonetheless, for the young man is obvious that all he wants is to see Rikka, he needs to know and listen to the human saying that he really loves someone else… maybe if he hears Rikka saying that he will be able to let go of the human and go back to the ocean as the White Wizard’ slave. At the thought, Dai slaps himself, said action causes that the twins look at him with worried expressions.

“Are you alright?” Ichiru asks and stands up to go next to Dai.

The light blue haired man nods and smiles at the boy. Then, Issei also moves next to Dai and caresses Dai’s cheek. The young man nods again to let him know that he is alright and that they can keep drawing or playing, just how distracted can he be? He does not even know what the twins were doing, he sighs and closes his eyes. What else can he do at this moment? There must be something he can do. He does not realize of when Issei starts signing to his little brother and so the boy gets startled when Ichiru starts speaking again.

“Issei thinks you have to go and look for Rikka, maybe you can see him and talk to him… I’m sorry, I mean… well express to him what you really feel.”

Dai hesitates, walking around the castle without anyone? He has not done that, but the twins are right, if he can get to see Rikka maybe he will be able to change Rikka’s mind. Then, the young man stands up, he still has a couple of hours before he has to leave to see his brothers again. When he gets to the door he doubts again and looks back, both twins, Ichiru and Issei, are cheering for him to go and find Rikka. Therefore, the boy takes a deep breath and then opens the door. This part of the castle is completely empty, it is to be expected since the engagement ceremony will be taking place at the opposite side of the castle. By having that thought in mind, Dai starts walking towards that direction hoping that he can run into Rikka or at least Hajime. The light blue haired man keeps walking until he runs into Kouki and Kensuke.

“Dai? Is there something wrong?” Koki asks him, and he quickly provides a negative reply.

“Do you need something?” Kensuke is the one who continues with the questions.

The young man seems uncomfortable, he dearly appreciates these two for all the help they have been giving him, but at this moment he does not want to tell them the truth. Meanwhile, Koki looks at Kensuke, it is more than obvious that they feel pity for Dai and how the events have turned out for him. Before any further conversation can take place, Hajime shows up asking Koki and Kensuke to leave them alone.

“Young man, I apologize, there is no way we can stop the wedding,” the dark-haired man says without hesitation, “The king has openly expressed that he does not love you and only helped you out because you were in need.”

The words make Dai feel as his heart is about to stop and the strength in his legs has vanished and is about to fall; that is until Kensuke and Koki come back to help him to stand. Both men look with angry eyes to Hajime and complain to him for the cold way in which he has spoken to the young man. Nevertheless, the dark-haired man does not seem to care, his eyes show no regret, but they also seem dull, practically as if the man is dead inside. Dai can notice that, and he starts believing that probably the White Wizard has already worked a spell on the man.

“Hajime!” Koki says his name again, trying to see if he can get some common sense into Hajime’s head after the man gives the same words to Dai.

“The truth is the truth, now I need you two to get back to work, young Dai you are free to do what you want, but please, do not interrupt the servitude, they must finish with all the preparations for the ceremony,” the man expresses and leaves them there.

“Dai, we…”

Dai looks up and stops Kensuke from speaking, the less he needs right now is more compassion. Therefore, he smiles and gestures that he is alright; then he bows excusing himself and goes out of the castle. At this moment, he is more than sure that the White Wizard has spelled Hajime, his tone of voice and the way he was acting is not how Hajime would behave. There is still some time before the usual hour in which he encounters with his brothers but staying at the beach might clear his mind. How to fight against magic? Dai wonders since he does not remember a time when magic was part of their kingdom and most of his memories from that time has vanished. At the same time, he asks to himself what’s the White Wizard’s final goal, is it really to marry Rikka? Is it a war? Nevertheless, how would Shun be capable of cause a war by marrying Rikka? He grabs his head and then looks up at the sky, the first quarter will be tomorrow; Dai sighs and prays that a miracle can happen. Then, when he looks back to the ocean he finally sees two heads sticking out, and so he starts walking to get into the water. He feels nervous as to know what his other brothers have said. Nonetheless, seeing that only Shiki and Tsubasa are there, probable all the others have come to finally hate him for loving the human world and obviously for falling in love with a human. The light blue haired man feels as his opportunities have all vanished at the same time, and if it is like that he is willing to negotiate again to save Shiki and Tsubasa.

“Dai!!!” Tsubasa happily screams and he and Lupus go towards Dai without a second thought.

Then, all of a sudden, all his brothers start to show up, Shu, Mamoru, Eichi and even Ryota. The blond hugs the youngest brother who is in the verge of tears for being able to see all his brothers again.

“Surprised? Well Shiki and I were also surprised when they all agreed in helping us, even more when they agreed on sneaking away after father’s curfew!”

Dai looks even more amazed at that statement, all of them have escaped?! And they did it to help him? He cannot avoid the smile that shows on his face and the tears that start running down his cheeks.

“It’s ok, this is what we need to do!” Mamoru is the first one to speak and pats Dai’s back.

“We will do anything for our little brother,” Eichi continues and then the looks focused on Ryota.

“Dai…” words are hard for the smaller merman, Ryota looks at Mamoru for help, but he only smiles and nods as if that could be enough encouragement for the pink-tail merman, “I’m…”

Then, before Ryota has to say something else, Dai reaches out his hand for him, there is no need for words; Dai has learnt a lot about that during the last couple of days. The youngest brother smiles and waits for Ryota to responds back, and so he does. The pink-tail merman stretches Dai’s hand and his eyes start to look teary and before the merman can start crying, Dai ruffles Ryota’s hair. The last thing Dai wants is to see one of his brothers crying again because of him.

“Did you get some help from the guy in the castle?” Shiki suddenly interrupts since they need to keep going.

At the question Dai shakes his head and tries to explain that he believes that Hajime has been spelled by the White Wizard.

“This bastard, how could he know that this man was going to help you?”

The oldest brother questions and Dai shrugs; however, the younger man also signs that Hajime used to know Shun.

“His first love?” Tsubasa whispers and Dai nods.

“It does not matter, we cannot count with that human now, if he has been spelled then he is lost, no one can fight against magic,” Shiki expresses, and Dai feels bad for Hajime, “anything else that you have found out?”

Dai nods again and it takes him a while to inform their brothers about the different events. Especially about the fact that the wedding will be taking place in the middle of the ocean.

“He is definitely looking to start a war,” Mamoru concludes, “we need to get all the possible help to protect the merpeople as well.”

“Still, we cannot make the whole kingdom go crazy, we can depend on Lupus, Fides, Ala, even Gravis and Idea will help,” Eichi mentions, “we have 5 dolphins, and 6 mermen.”

“I can ask my two electric eels to help us as well,” Ryota expresses with a confident look.

“And I’ll bring of course my manta ray,” Mamoru finishes, “It is not a real army, but it’s the best we can have to prevent this war.”

Dai hugs Lupus, he would have never wanted to ask his friend to be part of an improvised army, even less getting all his brothers’ mascots into this. Nevertheless, what started as his selfish wish to be with Rikka has become the outcome of an old dispute between the two kingdoms.

“They will be fine, Dai, all of us will be fine,” Tsubasa tells him when he looks the worried expression.

“Do you have to go back to the castle?” the oldest brother asks, if he could get Dai into the ocean so they can spend the night all together, he will do so, but that is impossible for Dai right now.

The youngest nods, even if he knows that the atmosphere over there will not be the best for him, he does not want to cause any kind of troubles. At least, not to the people who are not under the White Wizard’ spells. Even if today is not the decisive day, all the brothers say good bye to Dai one by one, hugging him and giving him words of encouragement.

“Well, we have to go and find a place to stay the night, let’s hope father does not go into berserker mode when he does not find us,” Tsubasa jokes, but regrets his choice of words when he sees Dai’s face, “I’m joking, ok? Don’t worry!”

“Ah, you should control that mouth of yours,” Shiki mutters and ignores Tsubasa’s complaints, “We’ll be ok, it’s only one night, for now go back to the castle and be careful, alright?”

The youngest nods and waves good bye to his brothers; slowly he starts his way back to the castle feeling physically tired but trying not to let that tiredness to take the best of him.  On the other hand, the six mermen dive into the water again with the immediate need to find a place where to stay for the night.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The engagement ceremony happens to take place during the second day of the Dark Moon Festival. Therefore, most of the special guests from other kingdoms have stayed to celebrate the new union. Of course, rumors have started to spray around about how irresponsible the king’s decision is and how this could affect all the surrounding kingdoms. In the middle of the chatting and the gossiping, the king and his fiancé make their appearance to the main room. Immediately, the conversations stop and everyone applause for the couple; right at the moment when they reached the center of the room, the music starts and so the king and his fiancé start to dance. A slow mellow waltz resonates through the room, showing the elegant movements that Rikka and Shun perform and leaving all the room in awe.

While dancing, Shun catches a glimpse of the newly come boy, Dai. It seems like no one has been taking care of the entrance, and so, the light blue haired boy shows up with his clothes completely wet and his look in general just being terrible. Thus, when the music stops, Shun sees this as his perfect opportunity; the man waits until the ovation is over and asks Rikka to walk with him a bit apart from the multitude.

“My king, I believe our guest forgot to dress properly for the occasion,” the blue haired man expresses and points at Dai.

“Dai! I should have…”

“Rikka, my beloved king, you do not have to worry for Dai,” Shun says as the seashell charms starts to bright again, “allow me, I will take care of him.”

“But the ceremony…”

“I will be back on time, Hajime!” Shun calls out loud the king’s assistance, and he immediately obeys by going closer to them, “Please, make sure the king does not follow me, I will be back soon.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Shun kisses Rikka’s cheek making sure that Dai is able to see said action, he has seen how weak the boy’s mentality is. Then, he walks towards his nephew, he feels his heart pounding hard with excitement, the last part of his plan about to happen.

“Dai!” Kensuke suddenly calls the young man out and pulls him from the party, “I’ve been looking for you to get you ready, come on!”

“Kensuke, do not be so loud, we will cause more problems,” Koki adds and pats Dai’ shoulder, “It’s ok, it’s actually our fault for not telling you to stay in the castle.”

Dai nods with confusion, does he really have to come to this ceremony?

“My, my, I see this boy is causing a lot of issues to you,” Shun interrupts the conversation.

“Not at all, we are just going to get him ready and bring him back,” Kensuke replies and keeps holding Dai’s hand, for some reason he does not trust the newcomer.

“I have spoken with the king and I will take care of the young man, so please go back and help the rest of the servitude in the party.”

Even though Kensuke wanted to argue and make clear that they will take care of Dai, Koki stops him and follows Shun’s instruction. The man does not hesitate in taking the younger man’s wrist, and kindly he smiles to Koki and Kensuke, Then, he moves with Dai towards the hall getting lost from Kensuke and Koki’s view.

“I do not trust him either,” Koki says suddenly.

“Then, why?”

“He is dangerous, I can’t say how, but he is, we cannot fight against him, not now.”

“Koki…”

Even if Kensuke does not understand why Koki has decided to stay back, he knows that this is the best for the moment. Quietly, they go into the room and follow the instruction given by Shun.

On the other hand, Dai feels completely scared, this person is for sure the White Wizard; he hasn’t seen him until now. Moreover, the way he is holding his wrist only makes him think that bad things are about to happen. The young man tries to free himself; nonetheless, at that action, Shun only tights his hold and pulls him harder, he knows that Dai’s left shoulder is still susceptible from the previous injure and so he will take advantage of that. Knowing that they have moved far enough from the party, Shun forces Dai to get inside a room, faster than ever he locks the door and takes a deep breath.

“My, my, I am very hurt that you have not come to see your uncle, I mean I assume your brothers have already told you about our real relationship,” Shun comments.

Dai lowers his head and nods.

“Then, I believe there is no much to explain, so…”

Dai asks the White Wizard to stop, and then he signs the number six followed by an “x” sign.

“All your brothers… out of this?”

The young man nods, if something else is going to happen and Shun is going to use him again, he needs to make sure that his brothers will be saved. That is all he needs to keep going on.

“Well, you are killing the fun, but once my plan has taken place, there will be no kingdom to protect,” Shun expresses dramatically shrugging, “no merpeople kingdom, no human kingdom, just nothing… but I accept, your brothers are out of the deal.”

Dai signs a number one and then a number four, making clear that Shun needs to keep his promise even with Shiki and Tsubasa.

“I know, I know, Shiki and Tsubasa will not become my slaves,” the man says rolling his eyes, “Seriously, I like them, but you know, family issues bring some nasty consequences.”

The young man looks at Shun from the corner of his eyes. The view gets to hurt the wizard, especially since it reminds him of his sister.

“None of this would have ever happened if she wouldn’t have been with you that day, if she wouldn’t have had to save you, she would be still alive, and we would have never mixed with the human kingdom!”

Shun mutters, he knows he is being unfair and the cruelest person with his nephew, but everyone’s life change from that day on. Dai feels his heart aching from those words, no one has ever said this to him, none of his brothers have blamed him, not even his father.

“So, my dear nephew, it is time to make an equivalent sacrifice.”

Shun states and places his right hand in front of his charm, the entity starts to bright while the wizard whispers some words. Then, an object starts to take form and the man places his left hand under it to catch it. Once that the shining is over, Dai can see a silver dagger in the Wizard’s hand, an evil grin forms on Shun’s face and he moves closer to Dai. Consequently, Shun takes Dai’s right hand and forces him to take the dagger.

“One last spell, my dear nephew, and together, we will crash both kingdoms.”

The man says looking at Dai straight to his eyes, then with his free hand Shun grabs the seashell charm and starts casting his last spell.

“Tomorrow, by sunset. in the middle of the sea, the human king will no longer live, from you my dear the final wound he will receive, by stabbing this dagger into his heart, and marking the beginning of a new war.”

The words boom into Dai’s mind, he will kill Rikka. He will kill the person he loves to get revenge over his mother’s dead. To provoke and continue this stupid war. Dai wants to believe that this will not be the end, but Shiki said it to him that day, there is no one that can fight against magic. The tears keep falling and he is afraid of tomorrow more than ever.

“My dear, at least you saved your brothers; at the end, your existence was not meant to only cause chaos,” Shun says to him, “now, if you allow me, I need to go back to my engagement party, funny to think that I will become a widower almost immediately.”

The man says and closes the door. Dai is left in the room, sobbing and looking at the dagger. If there could be a way to fight magic, he there could be a way to stop this cursed destiny. He cries as he looks at the moon, if he could only change the past, if he could avoid falling in love with Rikka. The young man’s mind is full of confusion and slowly every piece of hope he has starts to disappear.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would Dai be able to defeat magic?  
> Everything is pointing that this will have an agnsty ending, right?  
> Let's see what I end up writing for this, as usual, thank you so much for reading and for the support!


	15. A Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Defeating magic requires sacrifices, once Dai understands that, he might get to save Rikka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to wait until tomorrow to post it, but no, since I have edited and I think everything is alright, here we go, new chapter and just one more to finish!

**Chapter 15: A Sacrifice**

When Dai wakes up, he sees that the dagger is still in his hands. The boy feels as his heart aches, if there is no way to defeat magic, he will kill Rikka during today’s evening. Dai stands up, feeling stronger than ever the pain in his legs, and gets closer to the window. At the view he can deduce that is almost mid-day, apparently again everyone is too busy with the wedding to come to look for him. The young man keeps looking outside to then stare up at the sky, he begs for a miracle to his mother; the moon will enter the following phase today and thus he knows that any possibility to count with his mother’s power is null. Dai sighs, this is for sure an ending he was not expecting to have; the boy decides to open the window and let the fresh air in. Immediately, the cold breeze makes its way inside the room and of course it also hits Dai’s skin, causing him some shivers, but making him feel awake. Then, the door is suddenly opened, this time Koki is the one who has come for him. Quickly, Dai moves towards the bed and hides the dagger under his pillow.

“Good morning, young man,” the blond man greets and shows a kind smile to the light blue haired man, “Would you come with me to get you ready?”

Even if the boy intends to reply in a negative way, he accepts; without a doubt magic is powerful, Dai thinks as he walks with Koki through the halls. Now, the castle looks emptier and darker, it is as if the castle has become a reflection of his own heart; Dai feels as the tears are threatening to come out and takes a deep breath.

“Sometimes, it is alright if we allow ourselves to cry, Dai,” Koki tells him when they get to the bathroom, “I will let you have as much time as you need here, but just try to be ready when I come back for you, alright?”

The man proposes and Dai nods. Once he has verified that Koki is away he cries, he knows it is a waste of time and energy, but as Koki says, sometimes is alright, and even necessary. Later, Dai gets into the bathtub, he feels nostalgic remembering how great he feels when his body is completely covered by water; thus, he sinks in the tub until the moment that the urge to get some air is mandatory. Besides, after today he will be back in the water forever as Shun’ slave. Nevertheless, he repeats the same action more than once until the water is too cold to enjoy due to the low temperature. Then, the boy comes out of the tub and as he has learnt he dries all the water from his body to continue putting the clothes on. Dai notices that today’s clothes are fancier than any other he has worn so far, of course, today the whole kingdom will celebrate that the king is getting married. He shakes off the thoughts, he must be ready before Koki comes back; and so, he puts on the glamorous night-blue tuxedo that has silver details on it. Once he is ready, he has to accept that he has always feel uncomfortable by wearing clothes and will never understand why humans feel good with them. However, he cannot give a lot of thought to that since Koki has come back.

“I’m glad you are ready, now let’s go,” the blond indicates him.

While they walk through the halls, Koki explains to him that he and the twins will be together until the moment they need to go to the ship; which will be in one hour. Dai nods and feels a relief thinking that he left the dagger in his room. Nonetheless, he is more than sure than the White Wizard will use any kind of trick, but for now having left that awful thing behind him allows him to feel peace. Being distracted with his thoughts, Dai barely notices when Koki indicates him that they have gotten to the respective room.

“I will come back for all of you once our carriage is ready, alright?”

“Yes, Koki!” Ichiru takes the lead and reply for all of them and the blond guy leaves the room.

Shortly after, Ichiru notices that his twin brother is practically staring at Dai and so the younger asks why he is being so focused on the young man. The twin signs that the light blue haired boy seems sad, which Ichiru believes is something obvious, but when Issei also signs that Dai seems to be hiding a secret, the younger twin also looks careful to the boy.

“Issei believes that you are hiding a secret, are you going to do something at the wedding?”

Dai’s heart skips a beat by the question and gets nervous; he does not want to do anything, but he will be forced to. The young man tries to hide his feelings as best as possible and shakes his head; then even if he does not want to be rude with the twins he takes some distance from them and sits alone in one of couches of the room. This waiting will be the worst he has ever had in his life.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

A group of mermen keeps vigilant of the shore and any movement that can be performed by any human. Today more than ever they have to pay attention to the actions that the humans do and be more cautious than ever. The oldest take a deep breath, if something goes wrong he will regret every decision in his life, and he will accept any punishment his father decides to give him. Once more, he looks at his brothers, Shu, Mamoru, Eichi, Tsubasa, and Ryota; all of them decided to be here to help their little brother.

“It will be alright, we will take care of everything,” Tsubasa who has gotten closer to him tells him.

“If not… promise me that you will escape,” Shiki replies and lowers his head.

“Shiki! I will not do such a thing, I’ve come this far with you and I will not leave at last minute!”

“None of us will leave at last minute, so you better take that idea off your mind,” surprisingly, Ryota is the one who interferes and says the words, “we are now in this and there is no way you can make us leave.”

“Ryota is right, so you better accept it as it is,” Mamoru adds with a smile.

All the brothers nod at the comment and Shiki sighs, this is out of all the possibilities he could have ever imagined, but it’s for sure way better than all the options he thought. Suddenly, their conversation must be over, they can notice some movement; the humans’ carriages are starting to get to the dock which means that the ship will sail at any time. As they planned last night, the dolphins are the first ones to move so they can explore and provide them an idea of the conditions that they will face.

“The main purpose is to protect Dai, and of course to take the charm to destroy it, understood?”

The oldest indicates and all of them nod. This is the day in which this war can be over or become worst. Nevertheless, Shiki and his brothers will try their best to put an end to this.

“Mother is with us, Shiki, she will help us,” Tsubasa whispers into his ear and hold his hand.

“Yes, she is,” he looks up at the sky, hoping that even if their mother’s powers are not strong now, there can be a way that she can help them.

Patiently, they observe from a prudent distance their dolphins getting closed to the ship, swimming and jumping around. Their hearts start to pound faster and stronger; there are so many things in game right now and all they think is if their father could see them now, he will kill them without a doubt, or at least that is what they believe. When they see that Fides jumps three consecutive times, they know it is the moment to get closer to the ship, with that sign they know that Dai is on the ship.

“It’s going to the opposite direction,” Shu observes, “he doesn’t want father to come at all.”

“I think it’s better in this way for all of us,” Eichi adds with a trembling voice.

“Let’s go,” Shiki indicates without paying too much attention to the previous comments and his brothers nod.

“We will succeed, Shiki,” Tsubasa says with his optimistic voice and a huge smile on his face.

That is all what Shiki needs right now, to believe they can make it.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Everyone has already come aboard on the ship, the servitude, the guesses, and of course the king and his fiancé. Ever since the moment that Dai stepped into the ship he has been far away from Rikka, not only because he is too hurt to see the king into the eyes, but also because he hears the spell all over again every time he sees Rikka. The words injured, kill, and war all echo in his head and making him feel sick, what does he have to do to stop this? He looks at the horizon, if he could simply jump back into the sea, if he could turn back time… but at the same time, he does not wish for that, he is thankful of the time he has spent with Rikka; he just needs to find a solution. Making an effort to calm the storm that his thoughts are making in his mind, he barely notices that Issei has been trying to catch his attention. When, Dai turns to see the little boy, Issei points to the sea, immediately the young man feels as his heart will break even more; he sees his brothers, the dolphins, the manta ray and the electric eels.

Dai has completely forgotten that his brothers will come to help him. The light blue haired boy looks at the older twin and with teary eyes he asks not to inform the rest of the people in the ship. Without hesitation the little boy nods and hugs Dai to try to help him to calm, something that is evidently harder now that his brothers are there.  On the other hand, when Shiki notices that Dai has already seen them and realizes that the ship is stopping in the middle of the sea; he indicates his brothers to go under water to plan their next step.

“We need to get a better view of how things are going in the ship,” the older expresses, “I’m going up, Tsubasa you’ll come with me.”

Everyone stares at Shiki and no one moves.

“What?”

“Do you think you can climb that ship, Shiki?” Shu asks him, “Wouldn’t be better Eichi and Tsubasa to go up?”  the second son insists and all the brothers nod.

Feeling as his blood is boiling up for the lack of trust in his physical strength from all his brothers, Shiki simply turns around and swims towards the ship. The other brothers just sighs, and the blond shrugs, this is certainly something that Shiki would not agree too.

“Well, brothers, there he goes, the future king of the ocean,” Tsubasa tries to joke to calm his own anger, “anyways, that future king is nothing without me, so I’ll go, Shu take care of everything, ok?”

At the moment when Tsubasa gets to the surface, Shiki is already half way climbing the ship. The blond merman is actually surprised of seeing how far Shiki can go when his pride is hurt, of course, he can already notice that the older brother is already tired. Then, with no further thinking Tsubasa also starts to climb the ship, just with some couple of movement he gets tired, but he cannot let the purple haired man alone.

“Hey, look at you go, you’re making them shut their mouths,” Tsubasa expresses when he gets closer to Shiki.

“Shhh! Shut your mouth, humans could hear us,” the merman immediately says and Tsubasa rolls his eyes, “let’s keep going.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The ceremony is about to start, all the guesses take a seat and Kensuke has asked Dai several times to sit in the first row, but the boy keeps insisting to stay there; even the twins have insisted to stay by Dai’s side. Seeing the current situation, Koki has told the dark-blue haired man that is better to leave them there; and in case that Hajime comes in time that he can be the one to get the young man and the kids to seat in their respective places. Having the opportunity to stay there, Dai keeps eyeing at the gunwale to keep an eye on Shiki and Tsubasa.

“Dai, boys,” Hajime’ strong voice startles Dai, it is evident that Hajime will not be as patient as Koki and Kensuke, “you have to come and seat now.”

“No! Dai wants to be here, and we will stay here!” Ichiru immediately yells out loud and Issei nods.

Hajime sighs, since when the twins have become so attached to Dai? Only heaven knows, but right now he cannot tolerate this kind of conduct. The man already has enough with the weird sensation he has, so there is no way he can deal with such behavior.

“My, my, Hajime, I think the kids can stay here, but I believe the young man, Dai, will like to see the wedding in the first row, right, Dai?” Shun who has suddenly appeared exclaims.

“I apologize, my lord, but what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with my king?”

“Does it matter? I came to help you, you should be thankful, now Dai, let’s go.”

Dai looks at the twins as if asking for help, he does not want to move, but his legs are already disobeying his wishes and making him walk towards his seat. Seeing that Dai has already followed the instruction, Hajime sighs and looks back at the twins.

“Fine, you can stay here, but do not cause troubles, alright?”

Ichiru wants to reply; nevertheless, Issei stops him and simply nods, moving his hands asking Hajime and Shun to leave them alone there. The dark-haired man looks at the little boy, but instead of looking for an answer, he only pats the boy’s head. In the other hand, Shun leans to see them right in the eyes and smirks.

“So, you already know some stuff, let’s see how interesting you can make this.”

The man says, his intention is to scare the twins and make them go back in their decision to help Dai. Nonetheless, the twins keep their firm expression and show their determination to keep going. Shun grins, new elements are always delightful for him and this might bring some nice and unexpected surprises. After that, Shun walks away from the twins, moving to where Dai is now sitting down.

“My sweet nephew, do not believe that you will run away from your destiny,” the man whispers into Dai’s ear and places his hands over Dai’s lap, then when he moves his hands away the dagger appears, “you better hide it, we do not want anyone to see you with suspicious eyes now.”

Dai looks at Shun with teary eyes, hoping to get some mercy from the man, now Dai would even accept that Shun marries Rikka if that means that Rikka can keep living. Nevertheless, no sign of regret is shown in the White Wizard’s face, he will accomplish his plan no matter what. Then, the man moves away and smiles at all the guesses that are ready for the event.

“Poor unfortunate souls that will perish in a few moments,” Shun whispers, “Their king is about to become just a memory, and no one here will be able to help them.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

It has taken them longer than what they would have wished; however, Shiki and Tsubasa have finally climbed to the highest point of the ship. Both are exhausted and out of their breath, just how was Dai able to do this before? They wonder as they try to recover some strength.

“Ah! This was enough exercise for a whole year, don’t you agree?” Tsubasa says and suddenly he feels as a hand poking him.

The merman almost screams, and he barely gets to hold himself to avoid his fall. Even Shiki has to help him to keep him in place.

“Please, don’t make me go down for you and then climb again this thing,” the older merman expresses still agitated from all the physical effort.

Then, Shiki looks at the person who has poked Tsubasa, it is one of the boys that was with Dai; once he looks closer he can see that the two boys are there; staring at them. Before Ichiru could start screaming about them and advising everyone about their presence, Issei covers his brother’s mouth. Then, the little boy instructs his brother to speak as low as possible, so no one sees what they are doing. Consequently, the older twin looks back at the mermen and with his right hand he touches his heart and then points at them. For a moment, Shiki and Tsubasa are confused by the gesture, until Ichiru gets to interpret the action for them.

“You have our trust and our help, but…” Ichiru stops right there and looks at the mermen, “what is going on? I have been helping my brother and Dai, because he is cool, but I don’t understand.”

Tsubasa tenderly smiles at the boy, carefully the merman pats the little boy’s head and sighs. They cannot go through the whole thing, plus the boys might not get all the story.

“You’ll see, that is a bad guy who wants to hurt your king and our brother, Dai,” the blond explains pointing at Shun, “and what we think that we need to do is to take the seashell charm that he is wearing to stop whatever he wants to do.”

“Do you think you can help us?” Shiki interferes and asks to the twins.

The boys look at each other and then they nod. The twins walk to the place where Dai is sitting and Tsubasa and Shiki sees as Ichiru whispers something into Dai’s ear. Then, the young man looks at the point where Issei discreetly signs and so the two mermen waves their hands; the twins take a seat right next to Dai and wait to get their actions start. At that precise moment, the music plays indicating that the wedding is finally beginning, Rikka and Shun walk together through the hall, holding hands and smiling at their guesses. More than one person starts to murmur about how weak and sick Rikka seems to be, something that makes Dai feel worrier about the pink haired. When the king and the wizard get to the altar the twins stand up and Dai looks with alarmed eyes to them, just what are they going to do? The light blue haired man wants to follow them, but he sees as Hajime signs to him to stay in his place, the young man looks at his brothers who give him the thumbs up, just what is going on? Dai wonders as he tries to get a better view of the twins, but the boys, somehow, have gotten lost on deck. However, the light blue haired man cannot keep being distracted as since now the music is over and the minister starts the event. Slowly, but painfully, the wedding reaches the last part, Dai looks with eyes full of anguish as Shun leans towards Rikka to kiss him; even Tsubasa and Shiki are showing desperation in their eyes for the action that is about to happen.

Nevertheless, before their lips can touch, a dog’s barks can be heard and in less than two seconds, said dog has knocked down the blue haired man. Quickly after, the twins run through the hall, Ichiru keeps Shun down with Mico’s help while Issei looks for the charm. Frantic, the boy looks to take off the necklace that has the seashell charm while Hajime, Koki and Kensuke go closer to them to pushed them away.

“Ichiru! Issei! What are you doing?” Hajime expresses completely shocked by their behavior.

“Boys, you’ve never done something like this, just what is going on?” Kensuke follows, but when he tries to carry Ichiru, Mico jumps in to protect the boy.

“Mico, please stay away,” Koki says as he tries to help Kensuke.

Shun is well aware what the twins are trying to do, and so knowing that his dark magic will allow him to perform his last spell he let the older twin take his necklace. Quickly, Issei runs towards the side of the deck where he can get to Shiki and Tsubasa; while Ichiru also escapes from the adults with Mico’s help. The wizard stands up and looks at Dai, his powers making effect on the young man and so the young man stands up. The light blue haired boy tries not to move again, but his actions are all being manipulated by Shun; Dai turns around trying to see what his brothers are doing, hoping that if they destroy the charm he can free himself from the spell before it can be too late.

“Ryota, your mascots can take care of this! Destroy it!” the sudden scream from an unknown voice makes everyone in the ship feel completely in shock.

Nevertheless, the most surprised is Shun, when he listens to Shiki shouting his brother’s name, the wizard gets alarmed, he would have never believed that the other mermen would join Shiki and Tsubasa’s craziness. Thus, the man forces Dai to move faster; however, at that moment, the ocean, that is starting to look darker by the imminent sunset, gets to brightly shine with a dark lime glow.

“No! Dai, do it now!!!!!”

Shun exclaims as he uses his dark powers to immobilize everyone in the ship, his voice is full of anger and he moves his hands to accelerate the young man’s actions. Consequently, Dai rushes his pace, the boy looks with begging eyes at Rikka. Nonetheless, before he reaches the king, a beautiful light blue gets to surround Dai. The young man takes his left hand to his neck, feeling as his ability to talk has come back, then he looks at Shun who has also regained his real image, but remains as a human. Thus, once that the glow disappears, Dai stays numb for a moment, he feels his throat dry, but he urges his voice to come out.

“Run…” he whispers, making a huge effort, to Rikka and with tears falling down his cheeks.

The king’s eyes widen at the instant he listens to the voice coming from Dai. Rikka has recognized it, he knows who Dai is, he knows! The spell on Rikka has vanished. Nonetheless, seeing that the young man is getting closer to him with a dagger in his hand and ready to attack just makes him feel confused.

“Dai, why?” Rikka questions moving back.

“Please… run,” the young man forces his voice again as he keeps trying to stop his actions.

“We need to get there!” Shiki expresses to Tsubasa as he desperately tries to get in the ship.

“Shiki! Please, we cannot do anything there!” the blond tries to reason with him, but when he sees that the purple haired merman does not listen to him, Tsubasa seems himself in the obligation to pull Shiki down, making them fall to the ocean.

The twins see as the two mermen fall; unfortunately, they were unable to help them. Then, they try to see back, the view is not something they want to observe. Dai has pushed back Rikka against the floor and now is holding the dagger up. Issei and Ichiru get scared, especially Issei who feels useless once again by just watching the events.

“Dai!”  the kid, who has been mute for a long time, gets to scream out loud, defeating even the magic of the White Wizard.

The light blue haired man looks at the little boy with his eyes full of tears. Now, knowing that Issei has been able to be stronger than magic, Dai knows that he can do the same.

“Do it now!!” Shun screams and makes the man move again.

The twins close their eyes, not wanting to see the moment in which Dai will injured Rikka.

*°*°*°°**°°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°°*°*°*°*

In the ocean, the mermen gather at the point in which they saw Shiki and Tsubasa falling and once their brothers come out to the surface, they look at them with questioning faces.

“What happened?” Eichi is the one who finally makes the question.

“Ask, Tsubasa! He was the one who pushed me down!” Shiki complains immediately.

“Darling, let me remind you that we cannot be seen by humans and that ship _IS_ full of humans!”

“Now it does not matter!” Shiki replies looking up as if that could allow him to see what is going on in the ship.

“It does not matter??!! Shiki…”

“Stop arguing, we need to…”

Shu stops in the middle of his words when they listen to a scream, when they listen to Dai screaming. All of them look at each other with worried expressions and with no second thoughts they start to climb the ship, not even thinking about how hard that can be; they need to reach the top and see if their brother is alright.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

On deck, a young man is crying out in pain, blood is slowly covering the surface. The wizard looks with angry eyes at the scene, how could Dai has hurt himself instead of killing Rikka?

“You fool boy! But this is not the end!” Shun screams as the sun is completely gone, “You are going back to the ocean with me and all these people will vanish!”

When the words are said, Dai’s legs start to disappear, and his tail slowly comes back to be part of his body. Rikka has been looking silently to all the actions in complete awe. The king tries to reach for Dai’s hand, but the Wizard has already taken the merman’s tail, making the young merman yell out in pain, and drags him away from the pink haired. Quickly, the king stands up and runs towards the merman, but as Shun sees him getting closer he chants another spell; the frustration of seeing his perfect plan ruin has made him go to the extreme. Therefore, the White Wizard with his dark magic makes the ocean roar with strength, the waves become bigger than ever, and a storm start to devastate the ship.

“Dai!” Rikka screams as he sees the White Wizard jumping with him out of the ship.

However, even if Rikka is willing to follow them, he cannot. The impacts of the waves plus the thunders have destroyed the ship and make it crash into two pieces; and so, everyone is falling into the ocean, even the mermen who were trying to climb to the deck. In the middle of the destruction, Dai fights to free himself from Shun which he gets to accomplish and swims away leaving a trace of blood and goes to help some of the people.

“Dai!” Shiki calls him out, the older can practically predict what his brother will ask him, “You need some help?”

“Please,” the youngest reply and when he sees the twins he goes for them.

“Dai, stop! You are injured!!” Tsubasa screams at him, but he does not get a reply.

“He will be fine, you heard him, we have to get these people to the shore!” Shiki expresses and the mermen nod.

Without losing time, they take part of the ship’s rubbles and with some of the ropes that were part of the sailings they try to build some kind of boats for the humans. All the mermen cooperate in getting ready the dolphins with the improvised boats as well as bringing the humans closer and out of the dangerous waves. Thankfully, and even if the sea is too turbulent for the mermen, they get to place every person save, except for those who were closer to Rikka and Dai.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

“Issei, Ichiru!!” Dai screams and hurries to reach them as he listens to them desperately screaming for help, “It’s ok, I’ll help you,” the young merman says as he finally gets to hold them.

“Dai, Rikka, he does not know how to swim,” Ichiru quickly says.

“You have to help him!” Issei adds.

The light blue haired feels as his heart beats faster, how could he forget that?! Dai looks around trying to distinguish any sign of Rikka, but with the waves being so savage is hard to see anything. The merman asks the little boys to strongly hold onto him, he will need to swim where his brothers are, so he can send the twins to the shore. Then, he hears as one of his brother calls him.

“We think all humans are saved now,” Eichi tells him and then looks at the twins, “well, we can get them to the shore too.”

“Please do, I still need to find Rikka,” the light blue haired merman replies.

“Dai! Hajime is also missing,” Issei tells him, “I think he jumped after Rikka.”

“Go, I’ll tell the others and we will go to help you,” the green-tail merman instructs.

The younger merman nods and dives into the water. It has been a whole week since he has been able to swim; and if he adds that to the fact that he has to dodge every piece of the ship that is falling down, he knows for a fact that it will be hard to find Rikka. Nevertheless, in the middle of the dark water a light comes through, he looks up and sees as the light of the First Quarter moon shows him the path to follow. It is the first time in all these years that the moon’s light is so strong in this phase that it can go through the water. Dai smiles with gratitude and follows the path that the light has traced for him and as soon as he is able to see Rikka he spurts towards him. Seeing that the pink haired is unconscious, Dai does not hesitate to go to the surface as fast as possible. However, when he is reaching the surface, he is being pulled back by Shun.

“Let me go!” the young merman screams, “please, at least allow him to keep living!”

“I will not…”

The wizard is interrupted by Hajime, who has thrown himself against Shun to stop him. Thanks to that, Dai is able to reach the surface, not knowing exactly what to do to wake up Rikka, he feels as he is starting to panic. If he could reach the shore, people who are already there might be able to help the king, getting ready to swim towards the shore, the boy barely notices when a hand starts to caress his face.

“It was you all along, Dai,” Rikka mentions with a weak voice.

“Rikka… I…”

The merman hesitates, but the human does not waste the opportunity, and so he gives a tender kiss to Dai´s lips. Unfortunately, their happy reunion does not last long, Shun has also gotten to the surface and he is charging against Rikka. At the moment when Dai notices this, he moves Rikka behind him so he can protect him, getting an injured on his chest.

“Dai!!!” the pink haired screams alarmed.

“I’m alright,” Dai says, but Rikka knows that the merman is too weak now.

“Why? Why you keep protecting that human? Just why?” Shun yells with madness and looks to attack Dai one more time.

Nevertheless, Hajime gets on time to stop him, holding Shun’s wrist and begging him with his eyes to stop all this insanity. Hajime looks at Shun with eyes full of sadness; wondering where the boy who dreamt with peace between their kingdoms has gone.

“You are the one who needs to stop,” the dark-haired man expresses, and forces Shun to let go of the dagger, “let them go,” taking that as their queue to leave, Dai takes a deep breath and strongly holds Rikka to start moving away from them.

For a moment, it seems like having Hajime back next to him has calmed Shun’s anger, the ocean’s waves are gradually decreasing their strength and the dark sky does not threat them with a storm anymore. The wizard is trying hard not to look at Hajime in the eyes, but his heart has waited so long for this, that he cannot avoid the action. When his eyes meet, Shun starts singing the love song he has kept deep in his heart for sixteen years.

“I’m sorry,” the white-haired man says when he stops singing, “I’m sorry, I was so angry…”

“I’m sorry you have done all of this… I have been waiting for you all this time.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The merman keeps swimming, but he feels as he holds on Rikka is getting loose, and he is feeling uncapable of keep going.

“Dai, please stop, stop, you are injured, you cannot do this,” Rikka begs him as he feels the merman’s agitated breathing.

Nevertheless, Dai’s stubbornness is being more powerful than anything else at the moment and so he does not listen to Rikka, all he thinks about is to get Rikka to a save place. It is only until the moment in which he finds himself sinking and struggling to get back to the surface with the king that he realizes that is true. He does not have the strength to keep going, he makes a final effort to push himself and Rikka back to the surface, hoping that he can think of something else.

“Dai!!!!!”

The merman looks at the direction from where the voice is coming, Tsubasa and all his brothers are swimming towards him. The boy weakly smile, they will be able to take Rikka to the shore and save him.

“What happened?” Shiki asks alarmed when he sees that Dai is injured not only on his tail, but also on his chest.

“Save Rikka,” the youngest merman says, pleading to his brothers to take the pink haired to the shore.

Without hesitation, Shun and Eichi take the human with them from Dai’s arms.

“Dai! Please, I don’t want to…”

“If you love our brother, you will go to the shore without complaints, we need to take him with our father,” Shiki immediately interrupts with a cold voice and he does not give a chance for them to say good bye.

Shiki signs to Tsubasa to help him out to take Dai under the water, and then indicates to Mamoru and Ryota to advise their father of the situation. The light blue haired merman tries to look back to smile one last time to Rikka, but he falls unconscious as he dives into the water.

“Dai…” Rikka’s voice trembles at the mention of the name.

“Please… do not worry,” Shu tells him, knowing that himself is unable to follow his own instruction.

Nothing else is said, they take Rikka as closed to the shore as they can, making sure that the human is saved and can get reunited with all his people. When they are about to leave, they see as a dark-haired man is also coming to the shore with Shun, they immediately assume that that must be the person their uncle fell in love with.

“Judge by your kingdom’s laws the faults that he has committed, I, unfortunately, know that my father will not want to see him ever again after today,” the blue-eyes merman expresses.

“We will,” it’s all the reply given by Hajime before the mermen get out sea.

In the shore, the twins run towards Rikka and hug him, they were so scared of not being able to see the pink haired again. Nevertheless, they seem to be looking for someone else and they cannot avoid asking about the person.

“Where is Dai?”

“Why he didn’t bring you here?”

Rikka feels a knot forming in his throat, but not wanting to worry the twins more than necessary, he looks back at the kids with a smile on his face.

“He had to go to his home, with his father,” the pink haired expresses remembering what he listens to one of the merman said, “he was away from his home for a long time, so he wanted to go with his father and brothers for a while.”

“Will he come back?” Issei asks with teary eyes.

“He… he may come back,” Rikka replies, “anyways, look at you Issei, you can talk again! I’m so happy for you!”

The king expresses hoping that in that way the conversation about Dai can be over. He carries both twins, both boys smiling, their little family was not taken away again. Then, Rikka looks back at Hajime, the man lowers his head, he did not see Dai nor have any word with the mermen. At that time, he focused his attention on Shun and right now all he feels is his heart about to break, now Shun will have to be judge by the king.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you have liked the chapter, and as always, thank you so much for reading the story, all the hits have been a huge motivation to reach this point, as well as the kudos and comments, thanks! <3


	16. Linked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Under the moonlight the differences between the kingdoms are finally solved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I decided to post the last chapter on February 14th because in that way I didn’t need to think of a new idea for this day XD.
> 
> Forgive me for the long wait and as I have said throughout the story, thank you so much for all the support, being honest it makes me a bit sad, actually I'm too sad, to conclude this story, but it will be pretty illogical to keep it going. Anyways, I’m someone who goes to the extreme, either I write an extremely happy ending or an extremely angsty ending, so I hope you enjoy the one I decided for this story.

**Chapter 16: Linked**

The youngest merman is fighting to keep himself awake, he can listen to his brothers screaming at him, asking him to stay awake. Nevertheless, he cannot keep on fighting, everything around him becomes black, slowly the sensation of the water around his body starts to vanish and even his brothers’ voices have faded away for him.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The two mermen keep swimming desperately, they have not stopped talking to Dai to keep him conscious. Nonetheless, seeing how hard it gets to keep him alert with every passing second makes them feel more frantic. Needles to say, the situation only becomes worse when they see that there is no further reaction from their little brother.

“Hurry up, Tsubasa!” Shiki says, his voice cracks as he gives the instruction.

“Darling! If we go any faster, we will only hurt Dai more!” the blond complains, he is also about to cry, and he knows that they must act quickly, but they are also affecting their youngest brother by being so careless.

Desperate, Shiki decides to carry Dai by his own, they cannot keep wasting any time; and they also need to find a way in which they don’t provoke more pain to the light blue haired merman. Tsubasa wants to snap out and argue about the spontaneous decision since Shiki is reaching a dangerous point again. If they cannot save Dai, the blond knows that it will be something that Shiki will never be able to forgive himself for, and to be honest, the same goes for him.

“Shiki, please,” Tsubasa tries to reason, but with no result.

“Go ahead and look for father, we cannot wait until getting to the castle you have to bring father to Dai!” the oldest son of the king expresses.

Tsubasa hesitates for a moment, leaving them alone like this? However, when he sees that Shiki is being completely serious about it, he speeds out and hopes that he can really make a difference. The thought of his younger brother being unconscious plus his lover distressed look are more than enough to make him swim faster than ever. On the other hand, Shiki keeps trying to move forward, he will not give up, but the constant fear makes him want to cry and feel weaker than ever, why does he have to fail again?

“Dai, please, you have to be strong, you must be the strongest now!” the merman mumbles, “you have always been strong, and now I need you to use that quality more than ever, please, you have to stay with us, please.”

His voice breaks, and he feels as a knot starts to form in his throat; why did things have to go this way? Why did their uncle need to reach this point? Shiki wishes he could have the answers; he wishes he could ask all these questions to his mother, she was always so wise. If he could ask her; maybe, he could be capable of understanding the recent events. The merman shakes off those thoughts from his mind, he cannot lose his time, not now that he knows he is getting closer to their kingdom territory.

“Shiki!”

The purple-haired merman can listen to one of his brothers calling for him; he turns around and see as Shu and Eichi are getting to them.

“How is Dai?” the green-eyed merman asks, but he does not need to listen to the reply, Shiki’s look is all they need.

“It’s ok, he will be fine, Shiki, let’s keep going,” Shu continues and the oldest brother nods.

It is just like the old times, when Shiki did not want to allow anyone to carry Dai, when he did not want anyone closer to their little brother because he used to believe that he was the only one who could take care of him. Something that Shu and Eichi understand and so they simply keep swimming by Shiki’ side. Then, after a couple of minutes, they can finally see Tsubasa coming with their father, as well as Mamoru and Ryota. Now, Shiki knows that what is coming is the hardest part for him, asking his father for help, but he must do it for Dai.

“Father…” the merman barely can speak, “please, help him.”

The way in which the king looks at them is obviously demanding for an answer, why are his sons in these conditions? Why is Dai fighting for his life? Nevertheless, knowing that this is not the moment to request for an explanation: the king rises his trident, hoping that the magic that comes from the moon can be enough during this instant. Immediately, the mermen can see as the injuries stop bleeding, but since the merpeople’s king’s magic is not at its strongest phase it is not enough. Hurriedly, the king indicates Shiki to take Dai to the castle, by now, the magic he has used will be enough to keep the merman alive. Everyone follows the king and their brothers, and they are already thinking how they will explain such mess to their father.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

It has been a week, every day Rikka walks through the shore during the afternoon and waits until sunset. Somehow, he is always expecting to see Dai, he has a small hope that the curious merman will come back; and then he will be more than happy knowing that Dai is alright. Nevertheless, every single day he has gone back to the castle feeling as a part of his heart loses that hope. Today it is not an exception, the sun is setting and all he can see are the waves crashing, but there is no one around.

“My king…”

“Hajime! I didn’t expect you to come and look for me, I did finish all my work before coming, and you know it,” that has been the usual reply given by the king every afternoon, and Hajime knows that it is just to avoid giving his feelings away.

The dark-haired man sighs and sits with the king on the sand, both men look at the vast ocean in front of them in complete silence. It is weird for Hajime that this is the first time in sixteen years in which he does not know how to advise Rikka. In the past, it didn’t matter the problem, they will talk and solve it out together, but right now it is not that easy. Nonetheless, and in order to break the silence, Hajime decides that it is time to get some answers from what has happened during the last days.

“Rikka,” the man calls the pink haired out catching his attention, “why did not you judge Shun?”

After they have returned to the castle and confirmed that everyone was alright; Rikka instantly dictated that Hajime will be in charged of Shun. Needless to say, the decision was more than shocking to the dark-haired man since the king knew that his feelings will take over him and he would not be able to judge the magician. Hajime even has carried some feelings of guiltiness because he could not accomplish his promise to those two mermen of judging the wizard, but his love for Shun is biggest than anything else.  

“I think you already know the answer, Hajime,” the man replies with a nostalgic smile, “besides, I believe he has already received his own punishment, I didn’t need to do anything else.”

The man looks at the king, it was true that Shun has gotten what he deserved. It had not even been a day since the previous events when the white-haired man suddenly fell in front of all of them. Unexpectedly, his last spell did not work in the way he wanted and so his legs were not strong enough to support him. Hajime sighs once again; looking at the painful expression on Shun’s face was awful, but even more listening to the wizard saying that he deserved it.

“Has he explained you why he is still a human?” Rikka is the one to break the silence this time, trying to satiate his curiosity.

“At the moment when he casted the spell, he wanted to be able to live as a human and as a merman, he did not want to lose any of the worlds he loves” Hajime starts explaining, “he would keep the human legs, and would allow himself to breathe under the water, but…”

“But?” the pink haired looks at Hajime, the sadness on the man’s face makes him feel worried.

“He needed the seashell charm, his catalyst, to keep the spell completely going, now… he cannot go back to the sea and his legs are almost useless,” the man finishes.

“I am really sorry to hear that,” Rikka expresses with a sincere look and takes Hajime’s hands, “but, the good thing is that he has you now, and your love will keep him going.”

Hajime looks at Rikka in the eyes, he can see that gloomy appearance on the pink orbs and even worst, he can see as the pink haired fights back the tears. It is more than obvious that the king misses Dai more than anything, but how are they supposed to look for the merman? They are unknown to the real location of the Tsukino Empire; and he also saw the moment in which the purple haired merman talked to Rikka. Still to this day, that look is something that Hajime will not forget and is not able to decipher, a threatening look? Or was it full of hate? Or something else? Nevertheless, one thing is obvious for him, merpeople will never allow any human to be in contact with them.

“My king… I wish… I wish we could go and look for Dai,” the dark-haired man says, “I; no, not only me, everyone in the castle keeps wondering about Dai, and we miss him, but…”

“Look for him,” the king whispers, “I can look for him…”

“Rikka! I do not think that going back to the sea can help us at all!”

“I do not care Hajime, I just need… please, understand, I need to know that he is alright! That’s all!”

Hajime is about to contradict the king again, how does he dare to wish to go back to the sea?! However, before he can try to make the king think again and analyze his wish, another voice can be heard.

“I can tell you where the merpeople kingdom is, or at least where you may be able to find Dai,” Shun has just gotten there, using the crutches he was given and in company of the twins.

Unenthusiastically, the king looks at the white-haired man, he knows that Shun has shown that he feels completely regretful from his acts. Furthermore, as he has expressed, the man has already received the lesson he deserved, but for Rikka has been harder to forgive the fact that Shun hurt Dai with that dagger. Nevertheless, the king takes a deep breath, as he has promised to himself, he will do all what he can to stop this conflict between the two kingdoms; therefore, he walks closer to the former merman and stretches out his hand.

“I will trust you,” Rikka exclaims and waits for Shun to shake his hand, “where do I have to go?”

“First, my king, you will have to learn how to swim just in case,” the white-haired man expresses, “I mean, you are going after the fastest swimmer in the merpeople kingdom.”

The pink-haired looks with shocked eyes to the magician, he would have never thought that this would be part of the deal. Hajime and the twins stare at Rikka, the king has never dared to perform such an action, and they are even more awestruck when they see that the king agrees.

“Then my king, we will have to share a lot of time together,” Shun says with a smile on his face.

“Let’s be clear, I do this because I want to see Dai again.”

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

Time keeps going in the merpeople kingdom, but Dai has not woken up yet.

After being able to stabilize Dai with the little magic he could get from the moon; the king has ordered his sons to provide the explanation for the youngest child’s condition. Even if Shiki was willing to go alone, all his brothers had gone with him and helped him to explain every single event. Once that the whole story had been said, the king demanded to stay alone with Shiki; although his brothers did not want to leave him, the oldest one had requested them to go. It was surprising for Shiki that his father was not looking to blame or punish him, or anyone. On the contrary, the king had requested him to tell him every single detail they could have seen about the humans, and about Dai’s love for the humankind.

Memories from that day come to Shiki’s mind, a tiny smile shows on his face. If only Dai could wake up; he could tell his little brother that Rikka is doing fine, and that his father will allow him to go to the surface as much as he wants…

“It’s time to wake up, sleepy merboy, we miss you,” Shiki whispers while he caresses Dai’s hair.

“Nothing yet?” Tsubasa who has just entered the room asks, he tries hard to hide the worry on his eyes, but he fails on the task.

Shiki shakes his head and tries to stretch himself, he has spent every day right next to Dai, waiting for him to wake up. Occasionally, Tsubasa or any of the other brothers have come to make some company since they have also been going to the surface to keep an eye on Rikka.

“What about the human king?” the purple haired merman questions.

“You know, it’s time for you to start calling him Rikka,” the blond replies and when he hears Shiki grunting he laughs a bit and then keeps going, “as usual, he was walking around the beach, he still looks pretty sad.”

The older merman nods, but he quickly directs his eyes to Dai again. 

“Father said that he was hurt with a moonlight weapon and that it would take him longer to heal,” Tsubasa reminds again, just with looking at his lover he could tell what he is thinking.

“I know, I know… but…”

Before Shiki could proceed, their father comes into the room. Both mermen greet the king and stay without saying a word, waiting for the king to speak. The oldest merman looks at them and cannot avoid feeling gloomy by looking how tensed his sons look around him. Being honest, he has never noticed this until now that he has started to pay more attention to his sons’ behaviors; the king knows that if he wouldn’t have sheltered his emotions, none of this would have ever happened. Nostalgically, he smiles, letting them understand that everything is alright and there is no need to be so tensed around him.

“I see that he is still sleeping,” the merman comments and shows a necklace with a crescent moon charm, “I’ve been working on this with the magic I have been able to get from the moon, we are about to enter the New Moon which means…”

“No magic at all for us,” Shiki concludes and the king nods, this will be a dangerous period for Dai, “Would this be able to help him?”

“That’s the purpose,” the king replies, “it will help him to receive the moon’s energy during those dark days.”

Shiki nods and takes the necklace to place it on Dai’s neck, the merman is completely careful, and Tsubasa looks at the action with tender eyes. They would have to wait even more to see their brother waking up again.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The New Moon phase is almost over, which brings hope to the royal family that the youngest member will be able to wake up by feeling the strength of the moonlight increasing with every single day. As usual, Shiki is guarding Dai’ sleep, he has started to believe that his brothers are right and that he should allow them to take care of the youngest one once in a while. At this moment, he has begun to feel more tired and to feel the extreme need to move or his body will atrophy; even more surprising is the fact that he is starting to accept that he needs to sleep.

“You should really take a break, son,” Shiki has not even heard his father coming in, which makes him realize that he has reached the highest level of tiredness.

“I feel that as soon as I get to sleep he will wake up and…”

“You do not want to miss that,” the king finishes Shiki’s thought and the young merman feels uncomfortable by having been interpreted so well by his father, “every day I regret more all of my decisions.”

Shiki looks at his father, it seems as if the merman is about to open up his heart. The oldest prince stays in silence, waiting to see if his father decides to keep talking. Then, the older merman sits on the edge of the bed where Dai has been lying. Unexpectedly, the king caresses Dai’s haired and melancholically smiles.

“While I was disappointed to see that Dai was not showing any special talent besides swimming, your mother…” the king pauses and bitterly smiles, “your mother knew that through that talent he will be able to join kingdoms and achieve great things.”

The oldest son looks amazed at the king, his mother also had this conversation with his father.

“Even when she insisted on that, I was stubborn and wanted Dai to acquire a different talent, so she kept pushing the child to do it better every day to show me that she was right.”

The king sighs remembering his last conversations with his wife, “I’ve known that I never wanted to be closed to Dai, and I even know that somehow a part of me decided to blame him for my wife’s lost.”

“Father…”

“But, the real one to blame for every single catastrophe in this kingdom is me.”

The king concludes and feels as all the guilt and sorrow he has kept in his heart for all those years are finally washing away. Shiki stares at his father, he would have never thought that he would be able to listen to his father speaking in this way, and even accepting that he was also responsible for all the events that have happened in their kingdom.

“I… I was going to stay for a while, so you could take a break, but…”

“I understand, father, it’s alright, maybe tomorrow you can come and take care of Dai,” even if the king has talked with complete honesty, Shiki knows that the king would never allowed any of his sons to see him crying.

“If there is any change, please, let me know.”

The king requests and leaves the room. Shiki looks back at Dai and ruffles his hair, “you’ll see that’s the closest thing we can have from the king as an apology, feel lucky little brother.”

After some hours, the merman starts to feel sleepy, he tries to keep himself awake, but with no result. After all, he has been barely sleeping and eating, so of course his body will demand him to stop at some moment. Therefore, the oldest brother closes his eyes and starts dreaming of those days when Dai was a baby and he used to take care of him. The old days in which he used to help him to train his ability, to teach him about their kingdom and other stuff, and even those days that were only to play; most of those memories also included Tsubasa; the blond merman was the one who always knew how to make things funnier for Dai. Then, his mind goes to the day in which Dai recovered his voice, that time when he screamed his name out loud. Even now, he could swear he could listen clearly to the memory being replayed in his mind, Dai repeating his name and patting the bed, patting the bed? The purple haired merman has the urge to wake up and so Shiki snaps wide awake and sees as two hands weakly move.

“Shiki…” the voice is hoarse and a bit slurred.

The oldest merman prince looks at his little brother, he is still too shocked, and the same emotion does not allow him to react immediately. However, after some seconds, Shiki throws himself to hug Dai; unable to control his feelings, the oldest starts to cry for how happy he feels. His little brother is back. The younger merman corresponds the action, of course his hold is not as strong as the one coming from Shiki. Moreover, Dai feels overwhelmed by his older brother’s emotions which makes him tear too. When the moment is over, both brothers stay in silence for a while, there are so many things that need to be said and so it is confusing to find where to start. Nevertheless, Shiki is more than sure to know what exactly Dai wants to hear first.

“The human king is perfectly fine, Shu and Eichi took him to the beach that day,” Shiki starts commenting, “our brothers have seen the human king walking through the beach every day, apparently he is waiting for you.”

Dai’s heart skips a bit, Rikka… is Rikka really waiting for him? The youngest feel as the tears threaten to come out with more strength, but this time he will not feel them going through his face; now, under the sea his tears will simply get lost. Fortunately, there is a sudden strong noise, someone has burst through the door and when they look at the door all their brothers are there.

“I told you, he is awake! Dai!” Tsubasa is the first one to scream and he does not hesitate to move towards the youngest brother and hugs him.

Action that is repeated by the other four as well. Tears and smiles are shared, finally all of them are back together and Dai’s injuries seem to be completely healed; they just have left scars that will remember the merboy about the events from that day. Then, everyone wants to talk, to tell Dai about all the stuff that has been happening and how they have been going to the surface to look after the human king, as most of them keep calling Rikka. The youngest keeps his smile by listening to his brothers, but his heart feels an awful pain whenever Rikka is mentioned.

“And guess what? Father will allow you to go to the surface! You can go and see Rikka and…” Tsubasa stops when he sees that Dai lowers his face and tenses up, “Dai?”

“I… I do not think… I will not go back to the surface.”

Needless to say, everyone is shocked at the statement and stare at Dai demanding to explain himself.

“My selfish wish to be with Rikka put you all in danger,” the youngest member starts to talk, “if my wish to be with the person I love can put you all in a hazardous situation again, I do not longer wish to be with him.”

In all honesty, the words are piercing his heart still more than the dagger, but he means them. The need to be next to Rikka got him to make a deal with the White Wizard and due to that his brothers and a lot of people were in danger. He cannot allow himself to hurt anyone else, he does not deserve to be happy by other’s expenses. When they see that Dai does not seem to be joking or regretting his words, Tsubasa and Ryota are the first ones to talk, telling him that he should not give up to his love, nor feel in that way. Nevertheless, seeing that this is not the most adequate time, Shiki asks them to leave the room and inform their father that Dai has waken up.

“Shiki!” the blond complains again.

“We’ll talk later, now go and tell father.”

The oldest brother stays with Dai, hoping that the younger can feel freer to talk with him, but it does not go that way. The light blue haired merman stays with his head down and avoiding any kind of eye contact with his brother. Once his father comes in, Shiki is asked to stay outside; the king is not even sure on how to start the conversation with his youngest son. All the years he has been apart from Dai are coming to him and hitting him hard with reality, he does not know his own son.

“I am sorry for the mess I caused, father,” the sudden words spoken by Dai make the king feel surprised, “it was never my intention to drag my brothers with me, but I learnt my lesson and it will not happen again.”

Even if the King is sure that he cannot decipher Dai’s emotions, it is more than evident the pain that this decision is giving him. Letting himself act by instinct for the very first time, the king takes Dai’s hands with his own and looks at his son in the eyes.

“This is not the end of the lesson, think about that,” the king tells him, “Your mother always believed you could join the two kingdoms, and I am sure that you are getting there.”

The young merman looks at his father, it is the first time that he feels that the king is supporting him. The first time he does not feel like a stranger to his father, and so he does not know what to say. Dai lowers his head, unable to respond, and then the moment gets even more overwhelming for him when he feels his father’s arms surrounding him and hugging him. In sixteen years, it is the first time his father hugs him, and he can feel how tender the action is. The younger merman understands that this is how his father is apologizing to him and letting him know that he will support him, no matter what his decision gets to be at the end. Dai fights hard to hold his tears, but he knows that he is not capable of containing them and even the king allows himself to cry in front of his son.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°

It has been already a month and two weeks, ever since the moment that he made the deal with Shun, he has been more daring of going into the ocean thanks to knowing how to swim and where to look for Dai. Therefore, every day Rikka will take one of the small boats and starts paddling until reaching the point that Shun indicated him. That part was not the closest to the Merpeople Kingdom; nevertheless, it was the spot that Dai used to reach to see the surface. During the weeks that Rikka has been doing this, he has realized that this part of the sea allows anyone to see most of his kingdom; the castle, a part of the town, and some of the most humbles homes that are on the way to the woods. It has always made Rikka wonder what Dai’s thoughts were when he got to this area. Would he be looking at something specific? Was he looking to learn something? Moreover, he has also started to remember those days when he was a kid and he used to look at the ocean for hours. He has recalled a voice telling him that someday, the ocean might give him a gift… so, were they meant to meet each other? Are they meant to change the way their kingdoms have seen each other for all their existence? Rikka does not know and he cannot think of all the answers, not when he only wants to be able to see Dai.

“Dai, where are you?” Rikka whispers as he sees the calm water around the boat, “please, let me see your smile one more time… I just… I just want to see you,” the man speaks as he holds his tears.

Knowing that the sun is about to set, and that Hajime will get awfully worried about him if he does not go back before it gets dark; the king starts paddling back to the shore. As usual he looks around, he hopes that suddenly someone comes out of the water and he can get to see those beautiful light blue eyes. Nevertheless, today is not the day.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

After some weeks, mainly to verify that he has completely healed, the youngest member of the royal family has started to go out of the castle to swim again. Most of the times, he quietly leaves the castle, not wanting his brothers to worry about him or asking him if he is going to the surface, he is not. The youngest prince swims to the wreckage zone, the place where he used to have fun as a little merboy and sits down. Ever since the moment when he came back to the ocean, he has felt the water colder and that he is unable to breath. Every morning he feels his chest about to crash and that the words that he needs to say, but doesn’t dare to do it, get stuck on his throat choking him. Feeling completely out of himself, Dai keeps tracing the scar on his tail with his fingers and he does not realize of the moment when Lupus comes next to him. The dolphin is the only one that Dai has allowed to be with him during these moments, and so the merman smiles at Lupus and pats his head. Then, the dolphin starts pushing him, asking him to follow him and so the merman complies to his friend. However, when Dai sees that Lupus wants to take him through the path that they have to take to go to the surface, he stops.

“Lupus… I won’t go,” the light blue haired man expresses and stops his swimming, “I told you… it’s not safe and there’s no reason for me to go.”

The dolphin moves next to Dai, and then he starts to push him, hitting his back and trying his best to make Dai move forward towards the surface. Not wanting to be rude with his most loyal friend, the prince turns around and pats Lupus again.

“Listen… let’s make a deal… I’ll go once the New Moon is over, ok?” Dai proposes, and the dolphin seems to be alright with the deal, “but, it will be my last time going, alright?”

Needless to say, Lupus does not look that happy once that he listens to Dai saying the last part of the deal. However, no one has been able to convince him to change his mind, and it has seemed like it would stay that way. During that night, Dai is not able to sleep, he keeps thinking about tomorrow, about going again to the place he loves and misses. He thinks about being able to feel the air again against his skin, and he is even afraid of crying and feeling as his tears go down his cheeks. That night the pressure on his chest is even worst than any other day because he wonders if he would be able to see Rikka…if that happens, what would he do? When he turns around on his bed one more time, Dai is face to face with Shiki, he does not even know when his brother got to lie next to him and that is why he almost screams when seeing him so closed.

“Sorry.”

“What are you doing? You scared me!” Dai whispers complaining.

“I was working on a song, but I saw you couldn’t sleep, wanna talk?”

Dai hesitates about it, but at the end he agrees. Carefully of not waking up any of their brothers, they leave the room and quietly swim to the garden. Normally, being in silence will be fine for both of them, but at this time, it does not feel that way. Shiki does not know what to ask, and Dai does not even know how to express all he is feeling.

“I thought… that day, I thought that we were really going to lose you,” Shiki starts talking after some minutes, “when you couldn’t answer back and then when you blacked out, I was terrified,” the older brother makes a pause and looks up, “it was also the moment when I realized that I didn’t feel that scared when I saw you as a human.”

“Shiki…”

“What I am trying to say is… if there is another way for you to go back with the human king, take it.”

Dai lowers his head, there are so many things he wants to say to Shiki, he wants to express all his fears; leaving the ocean again, not seeing his brothers. Or the other way around, not being able to be with Rikka ever again.

“Promise me that you will do what makes you happy,” the older brother says, placing his hands on Dai’ shoulder and making his little brother look at him.

The younger simply looks back and nods, the final decision is still a mystery in his heart, but he feels he will soon find it out. After a while, they go back to the room and for the first time, Dai is able to peacefully sleep, the older brother looks with a content smile as Dai seems to have finally found some tranquility.

“Good job,” Tsubasa whispers, he has also been awake all that time, but decided that it would be better that just Shiki would take care of this.

“We might not see him again over here,” the purple haired merman replies hugging Tsubasa.

“But, he will be happy.”

No more words are said, they know that up to this point they have made all that is in their hands to help their brother. Besides, after all those obstacles, Dai only deserves to be happy.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The next day, Lupus does not waste any time, the dolphin gets into the princes’ room and starts rubbing his head against Dai’s back. The merman turns around, even if he is someone that loves to wake up and enjoy the day, today he feels too comfortable in his bed and so he does not want to open his eyes yet. Nonetheless, the dolphin has no mercy with the prince and tired of waiting for Dai to wake up, Lupus pushes him out of the bed.

“Ouch! Lupus!” Dai complains rubbing his back, but once he pays closed attention to the room, he realizes that none of his brothers are there, is it that late?

Lupus does not care about the merman’s complaints, instead, he goes and keeps pushing Dai until making him go out of his room. Unable to calm the dolphin and his excitement, the merman decides to go, quickly grabbing something to eat and then making sure that none of his brothers will see him leave. Nonetheless, as usual, Shiki and Tsubasa realize of his actions, but this time they will let him go as he wishes. As Dai and Lupus normally do, they start swimming through the wreckage area again, but this time, they do not look for any new treasure, now it is not necessary since Dai has already learnt more than what he ever thought about humans. Then, the prince and the dolphin start to get closer to the stream in which his father has placed the barrier; however, when they get to this point, there are no more whirlpools over there. Since this is the first time that Dai is swimming around this area since he came back, he stops astonished by the change. He has never been able to see how clear and pure the water looks in this part of the ocean, until now.

“Did my father undo the barrier?” the merman wonders, even if his father has expressed to him that he will allow him to go to the surface, he would have never imagined that his father was also allowing the humans to go through the ocean.

Having gotten lost in his thoughts again, the merman has to be pushed one more time by the dolphin; they are closed to the surface and so Lupus does not want to wait anymore. Dai feels as his heart starts beating faster, he can see as the sun has lost its strength, which means is already afternoon, probably too closed to the sunset time. The merman wants to go back, but he made a promise to his friend. Quickly, he sees as Lupus speeds up, getting some extra impulse to jump, the merman has always loved to do that as well; and so even if he hesitates for a moment, he decides that that is the best way to end his fear of going out. Swimming faster and forgetting for an instance about his worries, he propels out of the water; he jumps and twirls to fall again, but before diving back, he gets to see a boat.

He can see only one person in that boat, Rikka.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

In the castle, all the mermen are taking care of his daily duties and as usual they know that one of them is not around. Nevertheless, all of them know that for the youngest prince is necessary to go and find himself again. While Shiki and Tsubasa keeps rehearsing the new song and reviewing the composition of this one, they are interrupted by their father.

“So, where did he go today?” the king asks.

“Lupus came for him, so he probably has finally gone to the surface,” Tsubasa replies with a smile.

“Now, he is the one who has to make the final decision.”

“Then, let’s go and see what he does.”

Tsubasa and Shiki look at the king with shocked impressions and even more when they see that their father starts swimming, taking his trident in his right hand. The king of the ocean will be going for the very first time to the surface.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Rikka keeps looking at the horizon and sees as the sun goes down, the day is about to end and once again there is no sign of the merman. Nevertheless, he does not want to leave yet, not even if staying a bit longer means that Hajime will come for him. The king keeps his eyes locked to the ocean and let himself feel the breeze, trying to refresh his tired self, wishing to renovate the energy to keep coming every day to look for Dai. Suddenly, the king sees as a dolphin jumps out of the water and splashes him with some drops of water; even if he feels startled by the sudden action, he cannot avoid giggling. Giggling that stops once that he sees the silhouette that he was starting to consider lost, Dai.

“Dai!” the king screams.

He sees as the merman goes back into the water and he does not seem to come back.

“Dai!!!” the king yells one more time, but there is no response; therefore, without giving a second thought the king jumps into the water.

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

The merman feels as his heart is about to explode, he saw Rikka, he saw him after all this time! Why is Rikka in the middle of the ocean? Why is he here alone? Dai stays completely motionless, that is until he hears the sound of the water and someone immersing. The prince is even more horrified now as he remembers that Rikka does not know how to swim. The merman turns around, his eyes showing so much fear, but quickly the expression change to be surprised. The pink haired is swimming towards him, Dai is completely amazed and stays still in the same spot, that is until he sees that Rikka is having some problems to move through the water. In that moment, Dai swims closer to Rikka and catches him with his arms; even if the human is almost out of air, the king does not care, and as soon as he is able to be closed to his beloved merman, Rikka kisses Dai. The light blue eyes widely open and the merman fights to keep focused and take Rikka back to the surface. Once they are out, the human king gasps for air while the merman prince shyly looks at him. There is a moment of silence, until Rikka wraps Dai with his arms and starts crying.

“Why didn’t you come sooner?! I was worried for you! I was scared of not seeing you again!” the king says while trying to stop his tears.

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry,” Dai sobs as he hugs the pink haired strongly.

“Please, don’t you dare to ever leave me alone!” Rikka says while he looks at Dai straight into his eyes.

Then, the king’s eyes fall on the mark that is on Dai’s chest, the scar he got for protecting him from Shun’s attack. Trembling fingers trace over the scar as he thinks that for a moment he could have really lost Dai forever. On the other hand, the merman keeps looking at Rikka, the pink eyes that are still red and getting swollen by the tears, the beautiful pink hair framing Rikka’s face, and his trembling lips.

“Don’t leave me,” Rikka expresses, his lips are still quivering, but he tries to smile at the merman. 

Dai does not answer; instead, he carefully starts to swim while holding Rikka in his arms; the king strongly clings to Dai and contently smiles. Once they reach the shore, Dai sits on a rock in which he can still feel the water hitting his tail and Rikka sits on the sand, smiling as he is able to be again with his real love. Nonetheless, the merman stays in silence and stares at his tail, his hand unconsciously rubs the mark of the wound.

“I… I am a merman again… I was able to be with you because of my uncle’ spell, now I don’t have a way to be here with you,” Dai admits and feels as the wall he has built to protect himself from that reality is crashing down.

“Dai… I don’t care, if you cannot be part of my world, I’ll fight to be part of yours, if we cannot be all the time together, I don’t care, but…” Rikka stops there and walks closer to Dai surrounding him with his arms, “I want to love you, I want you to love me, I just want us to be able to love each other.”

The merman smiles, and the tears start falling down his cheeks; after all this time, he is able to feel his tears again, but he feels glad to know that these are tears of happiness. Then, Dai takes Rikka’s hand and kisses them.

“I love you, I love you with all my heart, and I don’t want to lose you.”

Dai expresses, and now he is the one who takes the initiative to kiss Rikka, gently he pulls the pink haired down. The merman allows himself to slowly feel as their lips link, to perceive and taste Rikka’s lips, and gradually, he pulls closer the pink haired in a tight hug. Suddenly, their action is stopped by the unexpected light between them; Dai’s crescent moon’s charm is brightly shining. The young merman looks amazed at the charm and does not even know how to explain what is going on. Nevertheless, before there can be an answer, the same light surrounds Dai, Rikka moves some steps back awaiting to see what would happen. Once that the shining is over, Dai is able to see himself with human legs and his body is covered by human clothes again.

“Dai!” Rikka exclaims surprised.

“I… I don’t know what happened,” the light blue haired man expresses confused.

“You have finally made your decision and your heart has listened to your real wishes,” a strong voice that comes from the sea explains.

“Father! Shiki, Tsubasa!” Dai exclaims alarmed when he sees his father and brothers that have come with Lupus, he would have never imagined seeing his father in the surface, out of instinct he moves right in front of Rikka to protect him.

The king of the ocean smiles, is he son still doubting that he will approve his relationship with the human? Moving slowly, the king agitates his trident, allowing the water to protect himself, his two sons and the dolphin, which let them be closer to each other. Momentarily, the king asks Shiki to hold his trident and unexpectedly for all, he hugs Dai.

“I am glad you have listened to your heart, it’s time for you to be happy,” the king whispers into Dai’s ear.

“Father…” Dai’s voice breaks, and he corresponds his father’s hug, he will be able to be with Rikka, “I’ll miss the ocean.”

“There’s no need, that charm will allow you to go back whenever you want, I didn’t want to lose you either, and I’m sure your brothers and friend think the same.”

At that statement, even Shiki and Tsubasa smile full of happiness, there is no need to be apart from each other.

“King of the humans, now, I respectfully ask you to take care of my son,” Mikoto expresses and reaches out his hand to Rikka.

“I will, I love him and will protect him no matter what.”

Rikka replies, and so the handshake between the two kings finally puts an end to the division that both species lived through the years. The youngest man hugs his father one more time and then goes to hug his two brothers and mascot.

“I’m happy for you!” Shiki says with tears on his eyes.

“We are so happy for you!” Tsubasa corrects while he hugs their little brother, also trying to contain his tears of happiness.

Suddenly, the crescent moon starts glowing brighter than ever the little group that is on the shore looks surprised at it. Furthermore, the king of the ocean smiles nostalgically, for a brief second, he can swear he was able to see the clear image of his beloved wife. Sealing the image on his mind, Mikoto looks back at the young men, all of them seem to be mesmerize by the beautiful light.

“The Crescent Moon marks the beginning of a new era, that is the moon that would represent the two of you together,” the king says while he takes his trident back.

For now, it seems that all they needed to do has been completed. Nonetheless, before the mermen can dive back into the ocean, the king gets a glimpse of some newcomers, among them Shun. Consequently, the oldest king stops his action and looks straight at the man that once he exiled. Being aware that this is the moment to fix most of his mistakes, Mikoto stays there waiting for the man to get closer while Dai, Shiki, and Tsubasa look with shocked expression their uncle’s conditions.

“I… I apologize, I allow him to stay with us,” Rikka starts explaining the reason why the man is free, however the King of the ocean indicates that is not necessary to justify.

On the other hand, Shun sighs, the white-haired man gives a yearning look at Hajime, as if he is saying good bye to the man. Slowly, he starts walking towards the place where his nephews and kings are. His heart beating faster, his fears increasing, there is no way that Mikoto would forgive him for hurting Dai, not at all. Quickly, Hajime, Kouki, Kensuke and the twins follow Shun to see what will happen.

“My kings,” Shun directs to both, “Shiki, Tsubasa, Dai… I’m happy to see all of you.”

There is an uncomfortable silence for a moment, Dai moves to hold Rikka’s hand unknown to what his father will do; while Tsubasa clings to Shiki. Then, the king raises his trident, the horrified expressions from everyone who is there, plus Hajime screaming Shun’s name out loud indicate that the worst will happen. Nonetheless, the king has used his magic to cure Shun’s legs and allow him to freely move on earth.

“On earth you are not able to use your magic, even less after you lost your catalyst,” Mikoto starts expressing, “the reason why I will not punish you for what you did to Dai is only because of the human king’s pure heart, and because I know it was my fault as well, I am sorry, Shun.”

“My king…” Shun is speechless, but his expression shows how grateful he is towards Mikoto’s action.

*°*°*°*°°*°*°*°*°°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

It is a special day for the Kingdom that has been known for so many years as the ‘Dark Moon Kingdom,’ since as of today a new era will begin and it will let itself been known as the ‘Crescent Moon Kingdom.’ A realm that will be formed by both, humans and merpeople, the event that will mark this new beginning, Dai and Rikka’s wedding. By both party’s agreement, they have decided that the wedding will be taking place on a bridge that they have built. This bridge has been designed so that it can reach the offshore, so the ocean’s royal family and merpeople can be closed to their prince, and it also has what it looks like a theater’s box on one of its sides so the humans can witness the event.

The ceremony starts with the mermen singing a special song that Shiki has written for the day, and then the twins come through the bridge leading the way for the fiancés. Both, Rikka and Dai follow the children closer and with bright smiles on their faces. Once they reach the point in which the minister is, the song stops, and the humans take a seat. Dai cannot avoid looking at Rikka while happily smiling, the pink haired giggles by how blissful his lover looks. Little by little, the ceremony reaches its end, the minister indicating them to exchange rings and then allowing them to kiss in the union they have sealed with vows of love and loyalty. Humans and merpeople applause at the event, and each one of them takes a moment to go closer to family or the ones that are considered as family.

“Father,” Dai says, his smile being the purest the King has ever seen.

“Do not forget us my son and be happy!”

“I will not! I… I love you father,” the young man says and hugs his father, moving faster to get to his brothers and avoid whatever uncomfortable feelings could come for any of them after said words.

“Father just told you, but… don’t forget us! You have to come at least once a week! No wait, twice a week!” Tsubasa threatens and all the brothers nod, the blond merman tries to talk again, but he can’t, tears have taken over him, “we love you Dai, we are glad to see you happy!”

“Thank you, Tsubasa, thank you for everything!”

All his brothers congratulate him and hug him for being able to be with the person he loves; saying as well that he will be missed during those days that they cannot see him. Once that the sun is about to set, Shiki is the one that speaks to Dai.

“I feel…everything has been said,” the tone of voice tries to hide some melancholy, but Dai can notice it, he has learnt how Shiki always tries to hide his real feelings.

“Shiki… thank you for being an incredible brother, I own you more than you can imagine! Thank you!”

The purple haired merman breaks in tears, those are words he didn’t expect, but those mean the world to him. The two brothers hug, not as a farewell, but as the only way in which they can express all what they need to say to each other. At that moment, the moon has started to shine in the sky and so by being witness of so much love, it conceives the blesses that the princes have been waiting for. All of them have acquired the Moon’s Bless, the magic.

“I… I also…” Dai hesitates when he sees that himself has also been surrounded by the precious light.

“You will be forever part of our family, and I’m more than sure that your mother wants you to have this bless,” Mikoto expresses with a content smile, “and I’m sure that your uncle will teach you well how to use it.”

“I will,” Shun adds as he has come closer to the ocean’s royal family.

“Thank you, father.”

The young man smiles and then he looks back at Rikka who has gotten closer to him. Now that the ceremony is over and that all the princes have received their gift by the moon, the merpeople say good bye, leaving one of their princes behind. Nevertheless, they know that thanks to Dai, and also thanks to Rikka, both kingdoms are now going to coexist in a peaceful way. Dai looks at the ocean, the place that he can still call his home, with a smile; then he looks back at the pink haired, the person for the one he would sacrifice anything and kisses him.

“I love you” he enjoys saying the words he was unable to say for such a long time, he loves seeing Rikka’ smile and the way the pink haired tightly hugs him.

Under the moonlight the king and the ocean’s prince seal their lips with one more kiss, both of them have learnt how to be part of each other’s world and they know that their love will keep their kingdoms forever linked.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you so much for reading, as I said, I go to an extremely happy or an ending extremely angsty… I thought about killing Dai-chan, but I’m not ready to be that cruel with my blue baby XDD. I think that a year ago I was rewatching the movie, “The Little Mermaid” to remember the story and see how I could turn it into this fic. My main worries in regards of the fic, I didn’t know all the characters I needed, I practically only knew about SolidS and so I had to start rewatching some episodes and reading the wiki…. Not to mention that I had to watch Tsukiuta since I hadn’t watch it back then. Also, going back to the movie, I was so angry to see that Ariel did have to sacrifice one of the things she loved, like why didn’t her father gave her the chance to go back? Even he said that he will miss her… so????? So yeah that was why I decided to go for the happy ending… and as well I didn’t know that part of my family issues were reflected on this fic and so I cried when writing the last chapter hahahahaha….
> 
> Also, as a last note… ever since I started this fic and the moments that my mind went to the NSFW part of the story, which I never developed so I could respect all the readers, but it always makes me think that Rikka would be the seme and I do want to write about their first night together XDDD
> 
> Anyways, again, thank you so much for reading, I know I’m leaving out a lot of things I wanted to say, but I don’t want to bore you with my comments, if you ever want to drop a comment or a message or have any question about the fic, just send me a message, I’ll be more than happy to know about your opinions.
> 
> PD: the mermaid queen’s name is Luna. Yeah… I never mentioned it during the story, but it’s because I actually thought about it until this week XDD
> 
> Thank you for all the support!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I hope it's not so crazy and that you like it, anything you wanna say it'll be welcomed.   
> Thank you for reading.


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